Today, Home Depot announced a recycling program for compact fluorescent light bulbs.

The bulbs, which are considered environmentally friendly because they use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs, nevertheless need to be recycled because they contain small amounts of mercury.

Ikea has been accepting the bulbs, but beyond that, recycling options have been few and far between.

Now, customers can bring any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs to any of the nation’s 1,973 Home Depot stores and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk.

The company said in a statement that the bulbs “will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.”

Senior vice president Ron Jarvis termed the effort “the first national solution to providing Americans with a convenient way to recycle CFLs.”

The Home Depot sold over 75 million CFLs in 2007, which saved Americans approximately $4.8 billion in energy costs and 51.8 billion pounds in CO2 greenhouse gases over the life of the bulbs, according to the company.