twisty light bulb

Last week I had a high efficiency "twisty" light bulb in my house die when the light fixture it was housed in came in contact with water (from the dishwasher, a floor above). The bulb transformer most likely failed as it turned on and off several times before finally dying. The date written in Sharpie on the lamp was '07, so it did get some use before dying of unnatural causes.

I have heard and read that the drawback of the high efficiency light bulbs for the home is that they contain mercury and need to be disposed of properly. It's not entirely clear how one should dispose of these lamps properly if you are reading the packaging - it just shows a line through a trashcan meaning, "hey, don't just throw this away". Okay, where do you belong now that you are dead?

I checked the Google and found out that The Home Depot started a nationwide recycling program last year where you bring in your dead Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs to the returns counter and just drop it off with them. Today I drove a mototcycle with the lamp in jacket pocket to The Home Depot to see if it was truly that easy. Yup, it was that easy. Kudos to The Home Depot for stepping up and handling this recycling project.