Inside Forest Park’s Two Fish Art Glass store, nearly everything is made from recycled material.

Mats made from pop-bottle tops are woven into designs, all of the scrap glass is recycled and even the boxes used to package lamps are reused.

But for the owners of Two Fish Art, 7401 W. Madison St., recycling still is not enough. Six years ago, owner Cecilia Hardacker wanted the store to be more energy-efficient.

“We have 200 lights burning at once,” said Hardacker.

Running a store of lamps can be quite costly when it comes to the electric bill. The bulbs also exude emissions bad for the environment.

When the first energy efficient bulbs were made, they had a bluish-green tint and a buzzing sound, Hardacker said. Because the bulbs changed the look of some of her lamps, she could only use them for utility purposes.

Now, the bulbs emit just as much light as a traditional bulb and without the buzzing noise.

“It went from something energy-efficient equal to something of what is more like florescent,” Hardacker said.

CFL bulbs

When the traditional light bulbs were replaced with compact fluorescent light bulbs, each month, Hardacker said they have saved nearly $1600 to $1800 on the energy bill.

Because CFL bulbs can help people save money on their electric bill, more people are willing to buy them despite their price. Government officials and private companies are also interested in the bulbs because of their environmentally friendly benefits.

CFL bulbs can reduce the number of mercury emissions the traditional light bulb emits.

Because the light bulb emits less heat, Hardacker also said that she saves money on air conditioning.

“It’s no joke,” Hardacker said. “It makes a big difference.”

Currently, CFL bulbs can be found at many hardware or general stores. Despite the bulb’s benefits, traditional light bulbs still tend to outnumber the CFLs.

“Some people don’t care about energy efficient and would rather spend the $1 rather than the $5-6,” said Matt Murray, an employee at Gordon Hardware, located on East Lincoln Highway, DeKalb.

ComEd rebates

To encourage more homeowners to purchase the bulbs, ComEd is offering a $2 rebate on as much as 12 bulbs.

Gordon’s Hardware is among many hardware stores in the northern Illinois area that sells the CFL lightbulbs with the rebate. Murray said he has seen a slight increase in customers buying the CFL bulbs.

“The purpose is to provide and educate customers of the benefit of compact lights,” said Thomas Stevens, a spokesperson of ComEd.

When more consumers use CFL bulbs, ComEd also benefits because the system becomes more stable.

“When customers use less energy, it helps reduce the load on our systems,” Stevens said.

However, one issue with the CFL bulbs is they cannot just be thrown away. Used CFL bulbs need to go to a special recycling center due to the small amount of mercury inside each bulb.

Consumers can go to ComEdcare.com and type in their zip code to find a drop-off location, or they can go to Earth911.org, Stevens said.

The Two Fish Art Glass store has also provided a solution. The store is a drop-off center for recycling CFL bulbs. The bulbs are shipped to Bulb.com for reuse or disposal.

As CFL bulbs become more popular, it’s likely that the amount of recycling areas will also increase.

“People are becoming more aware,” Murray said. “I don’t see traditional light bulbs going away anytime soon.”

ILLINOIS RESPONSE

Governor Rod Blagojevich’s new proposed plan to reduce greenhouse emissions is looking to take CFL bulbs to the next level. By banning traditional bulbs and taking environmental friendly ideas into effect, Illinois, which is among the top carbon dioxide emission producing states, will reduce it’s emission by 25 percent.

The benefits of CFL bulbs are beginning to come into the light. Helping the environment can be as easy as changing a light bulb.