Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) are already in wide-spread use and, after the federal government outlaws incandescent bulbs in 2014, they'll be about the only bulbs you can buy.
CFL's can not be recycled in your blue cart, and city hazardous waste drop sites won't take them, as the bulbs contain mercury.
In Alberta, there's no government plan for CFL recycling whatsoever.
Currently, both federal and local levels of government rely on retailers like Home Depot to run voluntary "take back" programs. You can drop your old CFL's in bins at the store, and the Home Depot then ships them to a mercury recycling facility in Ontario.
"We found that there was a need because no one else was taking care of it so we're taking care of it," says Brianna Basile, a recycling captain with the Home Depot. "We're being responsible."
The city of Calgary says that while recycling is preferable, it's okay to put CFL's in your regular garbage for pick up, as long as you wrap them in cardboard then duct tape to protect the garbage collectors in case of breakage.
"The amount of mercury in bulbs has really been decreasing over the last number of years," says Corey Colbran, of the City of Calgary Landfill Operations. "There's not a large risk but the risk is really just when the bulbs break."
Colbran says most CFL bulbs do go to city landfills. His department tests the leachate twice each year. He says very little, if any, mercury is ever detected and no mercuryhas leached into surrounding land or water.
"What's going into the landfills is staying within the landfill mass".
Environment Canada's numbers show 90% of CFL bulbs wind up in landfills. The ministry acknowledges that number is too high and intends to shrink it with a new regulatory scheme.
"We're working on a program that will require lamp manufacturers and importers to establish such a program to ensure Canadians will have easy and consistent access to recycling programs for cfl's," says Tim Gardiner of Environment Canada.
Public feedback has prompted the government to push back its incandescent bulb ban two years to 2014.
As Natural Resources Canada, which sponsored that amendment, acknowledges, the government needs more time to establish a recycling program before everyone is using CFl's.
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