I’m writing this post because I googled that title and took a long time to find the answer. Hopefully I can make it simple for you:

Take your energy saver bulbs to EcoMatters in Newmarket at 1 Olympic Place, New Lynn, Auckland. They are open from 10am-4pm on weekdays, or 10am to 1pm on Saturday.

You will be charged $1 per bulb. It’s a small price to save the planet.

EcoMatters will take the bulbs to Interwaste, which seems to be the only company in New Zealand that can actually recycle them. Interwaste works with bulk amounts. If you have hundreds of bulbs you might want to go to Interwaste directly. If you only have a few, EcoMatters is the place for you.

I wrote this in 2017. You might want to recheck the EcoMatters ‘Recycling Weird Stuff’ page to check nothing has changed.

(The page says Bunnings Warehouse recycles bulbs at no charge, but I don’t think that is true in New Zealand.)

In case you didn’t know

CFL stands for Compact Fluorescent Light. They may be called ‘Energy Saver’ or ‘Energy Saving’ lights on the packaging. They are the little tubey lights that cost more to buy than old-style light bulbs, but last longer and use much less energy. This makes them cheaper and better for the environment in the long run.

CFLs contain mercury, which is highly toxic. They should not be thrown in the rubbish.

Proper disposal information isn’t displayed on the packaging or in stores anywhere :( But now you know! Tell your friends. Save the world.

(By the way, you probably shouldn’t buy any more CFLs. LED bulbs are better now – they might cost twice as much, but they last 3 times as long, they’re even more efficient and they don’t contain mercury.)