Most of the lightbulbs are sitting in storage in Correos

31.01.2010 - Instead of delivering the bulbs directly to homes and businesses, the decision was taken to channel the distribu­tion through the post office. Notices were sent to house­holds with electricity bills back in the autumn to pick up their bulbs from their nearest branch of Correos.  However, it has emerged that only 15 per cent of a first batch of nearly 700,000 energy-saving bulbs has been collected, leaving over half a million idle and taking up valuable space in branches. Senior Correos staff are worried that they will be unable to cope when a second massive batch of bulbs arrives shortly. The measure is one of the flagship initiatives of the Spanish government to reduce electricity consumption and combat climate change but the 137 million euro cost has drawn fierce criticism from several quarters, who insist a direct delivery approach would be more successful. Not even a prime time ad featur­ing Spain’s football team has served to encourage people to pick up the bulbs from Correos.   

This article appears in the print edition 609 of Island Connections

Gallery: Bulb initiative flops

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