The Cycle of Waste
The lighting industry, in its relentless pursuit of innovation, has lost sight of an essential principle: sustainability is not about constant one-for-one replacement but about longevity. The modern era of sealed LED fixtures, designed to be discarded every 5 to 10 years, is a betrayal of true progress. We have filled our stairwells, corridors, and parking garages with disposable technology.
The industry defends this system with promises of energy efficiency and automation. Sensors, they say, will extend the lifespan of these fixtures. But the truth is far more brutal: frequent switching accelerates failure. A light that turns on and off ten or fifteen times a day in a parking garage is a light destined for an early grave. The illusion of progress blinds us to the reality of obsolescence.
The Myth of Remanufacturing
Now, a new fantasy emerges. Advocates of the circular economy suggest that we will collect these expired fixtures, ship them back to manufacturers, and rebuild them for future use. This is a convenient fiction. Anyone who has overseen a major lighting retrofit knows the truth—burnt out light fixtures aren’t returning anywhere to be remanufactured. They are torn from ceilings, their delicate sheet metal frames twisted and mangled, their cheap plastic components shattered. There is no elegant process of refurbishment. There is only scrap metal and waste.
Consider the so-called vapour-tight fixtures that populate parking garages. They are held together by the flimsiest plastic clips, their construction dictated by cost-cutting rather than durability. To believe these fixtures will be remanufactured is to engage in wishful thinking. Their fate is not renewal but obliteration—melted down, if lucky, or simply discarded.
The Return to Common Sense
True circularity does not mean replacing entire fixtures every few years. It means designing lighting systems that can endure for decades. It means returning to lamp-ready solutions. Not fluorescent—those days are past—but LED tubes housed in fixtures that allow for easy replacement. When a bulb fails, you swap it out. The fixture remains. The cycle of waste is broken.
This is not a radical idea, just a message from the street bro.
The True Circular Economy
If we are serious about sustainability, then our focus must be on preserving, not discarding. Parking garages, stairwells, corridors—these are places where aesthetics take a backseat to function. There is no reason these spaces should be shackled to fixtures designed for obsolescence. The answer is simple: bring back the light bulb.
The lighting industry must abandon its delusions of endless replacement and embrace a more intelligent path. Those who control the flow of products—the distributors, the specifiers, the decision-makers—must demand lamp-ready solutions. This is not nostalgia; it is necessity.
A Call to Action
At Lighting Solutions Group, we refuse to accept the status quo. We know where to find the right fixtures. We know how to source them, specify them, and install them. If you are an electrician, a facility manager, or a property owner who sees through the illusion, reach out. The future of lighting is not in endless waste—it is in reclaiming what we lost.