Most lighting professionals know the dangers of compact fluorescent lamps after their useful lives – mercury remaining in the lamp can leak in landfills and leave a lasting and permanent mar on the earth. In order to help combat this unfortunate aspect of an energy-saving light source, Home Depot has started a recycling program for CFL's at all 1,973 of their stores in the US, creating the largest and most widespread recycling program for CFL's to date.
From a lighting designer's point of view, it's great to save energy (and $$$) by using CFL's, but they're definitely not the prettiest source available for the home. Nowadays I guess it might be fashionable to surpass cost for beauty – but I work in an industry that consumes electricity like electricians consume beers, so beauty is often the more important aspect of a light source. Don't get me wrong, the usefulness of CFL's can help the average household can save between $12 and $20 per month by switching to CFL's.
Check out the excellent article from the New York Times on Home Depot's program here.
Home Depot's EcoOptions page is here, check it out!
Also, last but not least, go read this ridiculously awesome article by Routing By Rumor on compact fluorescent lamps.
[...] They look like cold-fluorescent crap. There exists the mercury issue. Places like Ikea and Home Depot are recycling CFL's, but in a place like Panama, where the alternative is rolling blackouts [...]