New Pig starts lamp recycling program

New Pig, a manufacturer of absorbents, spill kits, leak control products and  drums and containers in Tipton, Pennsylvania, has introduced the Pig Lamp Recycling Program, a mail-back package with everything required to safely and properly collect, ship and recycle spent bulbs while staying in compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) universal waste regulations.

The program's packaging meets the requirements of the East Lansing, Michigan-based International Safe Transit Association's (ISTA’s) 3A Standard Shipping Performance Test to ensure no hazardous materials, including mercury powder, or broken glass can escape during shipping. In addition, the program includes a downloadable certificate of destruction to demonstrate compliance with hazardous waste regulations during EPA audits.

Small- to midsize generators of fluorescent bulbs can use the program, which includes:

• ability to recycle up to 32 T12 or 74 T8 4-foot lamps;
• collection and shipping containers with prepaid UPS shipping labels to the recycling partner;
• Tyvek and vapor-seal bonded bag with self-adhesive seal to contain lamps, tubes and hazardous waste if breakage should occur during shipping;
• ·outer shipping box with multilayered cardboard to contain the sealed inner box;
• reinforced packing tape; and
• access to customer's certificate of destruction upon completion of lamp recycling.

"A while back we did a customer survey and found that many of our customers didn't understand the requirements of managing fluorescent bulbs," Scott John, New Pig product manager, says. "Our team worked together to design a program to help them properly manage this common universal waste stream. It's a simple package for storing and shipping spent lighting. This program offers businesses a safer and easier way to manage fluorescent bulb waste more effectively, reduce waste disposal costs and avoid costly fines associated with throwing out bulbs in regular trash."

Facilities can manage fluorescent bulbs as a universal waste and recycle the lights, or they can dispose of their lights as a fully regulated Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste. The EPA can levy fines up to $93,500 per lamp when disposed in a dumpster or garbage can.