B.C. began Canada's first comprehensive program to recycle all lighting products without charge earlier this month.
LightRecycle, a non-profit program to recycle lighting products, now has several collection sites in South Delta.
Since 2010, LightRecycle has accepted residential-use fluorescent lights at collection sites across the province. The expanded LightRecycle program now accepts all lighting products for recycling without charge, including all types of lights (bulbs and tubes), ballasts and lighting fixtures used in residential, institutional, commercial and industrial applications.
LightRecycle has two separate collection system channels - an expanding consumer collection network for residential-use lighting products and a new large volume generator collection network for lighting products used in industrial, commercial and institutional applications.
Collection sites for residential burnt out light bulbs and tubes in Ladner and Tsawwassen include London Drugs, Tsawwassen Home Building Centre and Ladner Village Hardware.
The collection site for residential fixtures is the Ladner Bottle Depot on Elliott Street, which also serves as the collection site for large volumes of lights from institutional, commercial and industrial applications.
"LightRecycle is one of 14 industry-managed recycling programs in the province that reinforces British Columbia's position as North America's leader in environmental stewardship and recycling," said Brock Macdonald, CEO of the Recycling Council of British Columbia.
"Expanding the program to include all lighting products from all sectors means that fewer recyclable materials will end up in landfill."
The expanded LightRecycle covers lights (bulbs and tubes), ballasts and lighting fixtures. All types of lights are accepted under both channels, including fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), halogen and incandescent bulbs, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and high intensity discharge lamps (HID).
A lighting fixture is any product with a primary purpose to provide light.
Common examples of residential-use lighting fixtures include floor lamps, chandeliers, table lamps, ceiling lights, flashlights and Christmas lights. Examples of fixtures that will be recycled by large volume generators include streetlights and large outdoor floodlights.
There are more than 200 collection sites for consumers to drop off their burnt-out lights (bulbs and tubes) and over 80 collection sites across the province for consumers to drop off their old or broken lighting fixtures.
There is no charge to drop off lighting products for recycling.
The expanded LightRecycle program ensures recyclable materials such as metal, glass and plastic in lighting products are recycled into new products.
Some lighting products contain hazardous materials like mercury. LightRecycle helps keep these harmful materials out of the environment by safely recycling these products at approved facilities.
The first phase of LightRecycle was launched in July 2010 and included only residential-use fluorescent tubes and bulbs. In 2011, nearly 400,000 fluorescent lights were collected across the province from consumers and responsibly recycled.
Like most other recycling programs in B.C., LightRecycle is funded by recycling fees applied to the sale of new products.
As of Oct. 1, fees apply to the sale or supply of all lights, ballasts and fixtures, including retail, industrial, commercial and institutional sales.
