Greenpeace clear Woolworth's shelves of 'power crazy' light bulbs

Greenpeace were out in force at Woolworth stores across the country yesterday campaigning for the store to stop selling 'power crazy' old fashioned light bulbs. Woolies sell the bulbs for as little as 20p and only carry a very small range of the energy efficient equivalents, which made them bottom in the Greenpeace league of bulb retailers.

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In some stores activists physically cleared the shelves of old bulbs and handed out the energy saving ones to customers instead. Some even chained themselves to pillars and posts within the stores to prevent being removed by security guards. This action is part of a long running campaign by the environmental group which has seen them sneaking into shops and DIY stores and putting labels on the power crazy bulbs telling consumers how wasteful and outdated they are.

Many retailers have made a commitment to phase out the bulbs by 2011, and Currys have already stopped placing orders for fresh stock, but Woolworths have made no such moves, which is why they are being targeted by Greenpeace.

It may seem trivial to some people, but if all light bulbs in the UK were switched to efficient CFL ones then we could actually close down two medium sized power stations. Not so trivial after all! You can see a very amusing video created by Greenpeace which explains the situation further over here.