Cambridge City Council has extended its partnership with gas discharge lamp (GDL) recyclers Recolight, by introducing a further two low-energy light bulb recycling points in the city, bringing the total number of recycling points in the area to eight.

The two new recycling points can be found in Waitrose on Hauxton Road and Coville Road car park in Cherry Hinton. These now join Recolight’s network of 800 recycling points across the UK.

In April 2010, Cambridge City Council became the first local authority to trial Recolight’s light bulb recycling scheme. It was instated as a way of providing convenient locations at which the 120,000 residents could recycle their spent bulbs.

Rebecca Weymouth-Wood, Recycling Officer for Cambridge City Council, said: “The containers have helped to raise the profile of our local recycling points as these points now offer facilities for more than just the usual glass, paper and cans.

“We are keen to ensure our public recycling points complement our kerbside collection by allowing residents to recycle items that we cannot collect at the kerbside.”

Suzanne Castine, Head of Marketing at Recolight, added: “Recolight is delighted that Cambridge City Council is expanding its number of collection points.

“As the first local authority to sign up to our network, it is important that we continue to raise consumer awareness, even in areas already working hard to promote the recycling of low-energy light bulbs”

Recolight’s low-energy light bulb collection scheme recycled 2,000 low-energy bulbs in its first 14 months of inception and has helped the not-for-profit business recycle in excess of 125 million lamps to date. According to Recolight, this has saved a third of a tonne of mercury from going to landfill.

Read more about Recolight’s recycling schemes