Electrical Distributor Outreach

NEWMOA's Lamp Recycling Workgroup conducted outreach to electrical distributors to encourage them to set up reverse distribution, or lamp take-back programs, so that lamp users would have more options for recycling their lamps. NEWMOA believes lamp take-back programs can help address the issue of inconvenience, which is often cited as a reason why lamp users do not recycle their lamps.

Electrical distributors are uniquely positioned to offer their customers a convenient one-stop shopping arrangement for lamp purchasing and spent lamp management. At the same time, distributors stand to make a profit by offering recycling services. As TED (The Electrical Distributor) Magazine says, "Offering a recycling option to customers can be a good 'value-add' service for distributors," TED Magazine, July 2002. Greg Smith of Granite City Electric further adds that, "The real benefit of our recycling program is receiving orders for lamps that we wouldn't have if we didn't recycle."

Electrical distributors can take different approaches to reverse distribution, ranging from simply acting as a broker to picking up spent lamps from customers. See Models of reverse distribution.

Trade magazine articles on reverse distribution:

• Green Machine; TED, July 2002 (About Wesco-Bangor)
• Upfront: Fluorescent lamp recycling differentiates distributors; TED, November 2004
• Lamp recycling: Right, smart; TED, March 2005