Low Energy Bulb Recycling on British High Street

20 October 2010 British home and garden retailer Robert Dyas has partnered with Croydon, UK based recycling specialists Recolight to provide the first ever high street light bulb recycling service. All 98 Robert Dyas stores across the South East will take back low-energy light bulbs, enabling customers to easily dispose of their end-of-life bulbs when visiting the store. Recolight is a not-for-profit producer-led compliance scheme specialising in the recycling of gas discharge lamps (GDLs) in accordance with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations. This includes compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) such as energy-saving light bulbs. In accordance with the WEEE regulations, all low-energy light bulbs need to be recycled when they reach end-of-life. As traditional light bulbs are phased out under legislation, low-energy versions will become more common in homes, and as they contain a small amount of mercury to produce light efficiently, they can be harmful to the environment if sent to landfill. This partnership is an important step in providing consumers with a wider range of options to make recycling CFLs as easy as possible. Lynda Kelly, Brand Manager at Robert Dyas said, "We recognise that we have a responsibility to ensure that environmental and social issues influence the way we operate our stores, and what products we offer our customers. Robert Dyas has been actively doing its part for over 100 years, and we feel that the new in store light bulb recycling service is a great way to start communicating this to our customers. We are encouraging all our customers to work with us to minimise our impact on the environment, and are determined to do everything we can to make this as easy as possible." Recolight Chief Executive Nigel Harvey said "Working with Robert Dyas adds to the number of consumer collection points and we hope this will lead to an increase in the number of light bulbs being recycled by the public. Research has indicated that consumers will recycle energy-saving light bulbs if they have access to suitable drop off points. Robert Dyas stores provide an excellent location for this."