Choosing a Recycling Option

Whether a business chooses to hire a relamping contractor or replace the waste mercury lamps themselves, every business should have a recycling plan.

Businesses have several options when recycling small quantities of waste mercury lamps.

• Household hazardous waste collections: A very small business can drop off waste mercury lamps at a local household hazardous waste facility that accepts business wastes. Household hazardous waste facilities can legally accept universal wastes like waste lamps provided that they are managed in compliance with the universal waste regulations. For more information, please visit CalRecycle’s Household Hazardous Waste web page.  For additional information on household hazardous waste collection dates and locations, please call your local city or county public works or environmental health department.
• Pick up and recycle services: Businesses can contract with a transportation/accumulation firm that picks up waste mercury lamps on a regular basis for recycling. It is very important that the contract specifies lamp management practices that comply with the law. If your business generates waste lamps, it has cradle-to-grave environmental liability for them, even after a pickup services takes them away!
• Recycling facilities: Businesses can take waste mercury lamps directly to an authorized recycling facility.
• Mail-in boxes: Businesses can purchase pre-paid mailing boxes from lamp recyclers. The price of the box includes the cost of shipping and recycling. When a prepaid recycling box is full, simply seal it and ship it to the recycler. Mail-in boxes are an excellent alternative for recycling burn outs and for recycling waste lamps from very small buildings.

For questions about content, please contact the Regulatory Assistance Officers at (800) 72-TOXIC (800-728-6942) or go to the Regulatory Assistance Office web page.