Free Lightbulb Recycling Program Comes To Abrupt Halt

In late 2025 it was announced that the Washington State-mandated “LightRecycle” program would no longer cover the costs of recycling mercury-containing fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent lightbulbs, or CFLs. The Exchange just shipped off its last load of free bulbs covered by the program.

As of March 1, 2026 we will be charging the public to recycle these items. Tubes of any length will be $2.00, and CFL bulbs will cost $1.00. We will also accept LED and Halogen bulbs for the same prices.

The LightRecycle program was one of the State’s first “Extended Producer Responsibility” or “EPR” laws, rules that essentially put end-of-life recycling and/or disposal costs back on the manufacturer. The light program was directly targeting the highly toxic excess mercury found in waste systems and landfills.

Since the law was passed in 2010, a small fee was attached to the sale of every fluorescent bulb sold in the state. That money was used to fund the recycling program. Now, according to Washington’s Department of Ecology, so few mercury-containing lights are being sold that there is not enough money to fund the recycling costs.

While the disposal charge will be an annoyance for some, the good news is that law likely hastened the end of toxic lightbulbs. A similar but much broader law was passed in 2025 that would set up an EPR system for virtually all product packaging. You can learn more about that here.