Unused lamps are considered commercial chemical products. If you plan to dispose of your lamps in a municipal solid waste stream, ensure that you have the appropriate documentation indicating that your lamps are not hazardous waste. It is important that lamps destined for recycling are recycled in reasonable time. If at least 75 percent of the lamps present at the beginning of a calendar year are recycled, a facility is not considered to be speculatively accumulating the fluorescent lamps. U.S. EPA currently is exploring several options to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses replacing inefficient lamps.
Many states also have their own rules governing fluorescent lamps.
If you send lamps out of state, you should contact the destination state's environmental protection agency to become familiar with their rules. For general guidance, the U.S. EPA offers The Lighting Upgrade Manual , a publication providing information on federal and state requirements for managing mercury containing lamps and ballasts. Topics include cost estimates, environmental impacts of disposal, agency contacts, and an information hotline. Fluorescent Lamp Recycling Virtually an entire fluorescent lamp can be recycled, including end caps, glass tube, wire, mercury, and phosphor powder. The recycled glass can be used as feedstock in the manufacture of glass products, or as cement filler.