September 25, 2012 – On October 1, British Columbia will have the first comprehensive program to recycle all lighting products in Canada. LightRecycle will include all types of lights (bulbs and tubes), ballasts and lighting fixtures used in residential, institutional, commercial and industrial applications.
The expanded program includes common residential-use lighting products such as all types of light bulbs and tubes, table lamps, floor lights, flashlights and more. Lighting products from residential, institutional, commercial and industrial applications from large volume generators (i.e. contractors, businesses, relampers, schools, building managers, etc) will include all types of lights, street lights, large outdoor flood lights, ballasts and more.
The program will ensure recyclable materials such as metal, glass and plastic in lighting products are recycled into new products. 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.
LightRecycle includes a network of collection sites which are designated to collect specific product types. For example there are over 200 collection sites around the province for consumers that will collect residential-use burnt out lights (bulbs and tubes) and 80 for fixtures. There is a separate system for large volume generators.
Please contact Matt MacInnis at (604) 652-4611 to schedule an interview with program spokesperson Jordan Best, Senior Program Coordinator with Product Care Association. Also available to speak about LightRecycle is Brock Macdonald, CEO of the Recycling Council of British Columbia and Shafiq Jamal, VP Western Canada of the Retail Council of Canada.
For more information please find the attached news release or visit www.lightrecycle.ca.