One of the biggest assets of LED’s is that they are 100% recyclable. This makes them much more environment friendly than CFL or incandescent bulbs. Which is an excellent feature. However, with that comes an implicit responsibility that a person must take to make an effort to recycle the bulbs instead of just throwing them away (which is actually slightly detrimental to nature since LED’s contain lead, nickel and arsenic).
The principle recyclable elements arising from GDL and LED retrofit recycling are: glass, Aluminum and circuit boards, Phosphor powders containing rare earths and mercury and Plastics. If you’re a new user or just curious about the technology, you should try and be careful in how you choose to recycle your LED products.
Contact one of the many local recycling centers. Many of them are offer specialized LED recycling programs that take advantage of the valuable materials in these bulbs towards reuse. You can find an exhaustive list of local recycling centers, along with specific details or guidelines on the internet, no matter which city or country you live in.
Another option is to safely pack burned out LED bulbs and ship them to online recycling programs. These organizations will accept your LED light bulbs free of charge (for example: recycleguru.in or encashea.com). Many light bulb manufacturers also accept recycled products by mail/courier and even offer certain incentives for doing so.
It’s wise to consult these places and learn all about various recycling options. The upkeep of nature and environment is one of our primary responsibility and a lot of people seem to conveniently ignore it. Adapting LED’s can be your incentive to regain sight of natural conservation again. Start as soon as you can.