The Ecosocialists were never so torn

Between their love for the new Compact Flourescent Light bulbs and their rabid hatred of Wal-Mart

For people who care about the environment, few products are more important than energy-saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs. But there is one flaw; each bulb contains a tiny amount of toxic mercury that shouldn’t be disposed of in most landfills.

Last Saturday, Wal-Mart stores, Supercenters and Sam’s Clubs in Rhode Island and four other states took part in a pilot program to address that flaw by accepting and recycling old CFL bulbs. Steven P. Hamburg, the Brown University environmental studies professor who first advised Wal-Mart to make a big commitment to CFLs, called it a good first step.

Saturday’s effort also was praised by W. Michael Sullivan, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, who said it would help complete the life cycle of the bulbs by enabling consumers to return them for recycling.

For eight hours Saturday, Wal-Mart accepted old compact fluorescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes at special kiosks outside their stores in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Oklahoma — the states were selected for their geographic diversity.

I understand that each Wal-Mart location had an historically high count of VW micro-buses in their parking lots that weekend. It was also reported that some of the on-board Nav programs in the Prius’ refused to locate a Wal-Mart and first redirected their occupants to nearby Whole Foods stores.