CFL bulbs utilize a very small amount of mercury sealed within glass tubing and therefore need to be treated as a hazardous material when disposed of, similar to batteries or paint.

Many recycling centers accept spent CFL bulbs. Check with your city’s sanitation and recycling program to find out the best way to dispose of CFL bulbs. In addition, the following web sites allow consumers to locate CFL bulb recycling centers near them.

Earth 911: http://minnesota.earth911.org

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency: http://www.pca.state.mn.us

CFL bulbs use up to 75% less energy to produce the same amount of light as incandescent bulbs.

Average life of a CFL bulb is 8,000 hours versus 1,000 hours for an incandescent bulb.

A typical CFL bulb costs about $3 more than a regular incandescent bulb but saves an average of $30 over its lifetime in energy and replacement costs.

Incandescent bulbs waste 90% of their energy creating heat.

If every home in America replaced the five most frequently used bulbs in their home with ENERGY STAR® CFL bulbs, it would eliminate greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from more than eight million cars.

If each household in Great River Energy's service area replaced 5 incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs it would eliminate 201,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

CFL bulbs are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.

CFL bulbs generate 70% less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.