How to Recycle Your Christmas Lights!

Recycling Christmas lights is easier than you might think. We all know the importance of recycling. Millions of us regularly recycle our bottles and cans, newspapers, batteries, and other everyday items. We compost Autumn leaves and Christmas trees. We take batteries, PC equipment and florescent light bulbs to special drop offs in order to keep harsh chemicals out of our landfills and our environment. But we often think nothing of tossing old strings of Christmas lights in the garbage.

Granted, it's harder to remember to recycle items we do not use regularly, or we justify their disposal as "just one item". Other times, we want to recycle these unusual items, but have no idea where or how to accomplish this. Fortunately, it's easy to recycle Christmas light strands!

Why Recycle Old Christmas Lights?

The colors have faded, the replacement bulbs are long gone and you know you're never going to use that old burnt out strand again. It's helping you to get it out of the house, but are you helping your community by adding it to the pile in the landfill?

Light strands are barely biodegradable (if at all). Plastic and wire can take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose. Not to mention the risk to the animals that rummage in and near our landfills. Just as the plastic rings that bind 6-packs of cola can strangle small creatures, so can Christmas lights, turning a thing of joy in our homes into a killer in nature. Over the years, you've spent so much time struggling to untangle those lights! Think how difficult it would be for creatures lacking our high level of dexterity to unwrap those lights from just about anything.

This can be especially true for piles of the lights. Many homes are now choosing to switch to LED Christmas lights for their energy-saving properties. Families that switch all of their lights to LED at one time may find they have piles of Christmas lights to discard! As discusses above, the resultant mess of wires and glass is not just a hazard in our homes. Recycling is the perfect solution for keeping these mean green strings out of our serene streams.

Three Ways to Recycle Christmas Light Strings

Fortunately, there is more than one way to recycle your unwanted lights.

Donate working strands to your neighbors in need. If you still have the box, try Goodwill, the Salvation Army or similar organizations. Drop them by your local homeless shelter to brighten the windows. Give to a neighbor who's a little tight on cash, or take them in to work and offer them to your colleagues. A great way to connect your usable items with neighbors is through online services such Freecycle .

Creatively recycle and reuse the strings at home. As a child I spent many an hour with my father, an electrician, stripping down unwanted old wire removed from newly renovated homes. He taught me how to take a small work knife or an old paring knife and carefully strip the plastic from the wire. He would then take the copper to be recycled and was paid for it by the pound. However, a short amount of time doing this in your own home can result in a nice collection of convenient twisty-ties for your household's use (World Environmental Organization). Forum member "VP" at How Can I Recycle This? uses the wire for plant ties, and saves the plugs as spares. The World Environmental Organization also suggests using the old bulbs creatively by discarding their plastic casings and twisting the bulbs' wires together to create little stars and flowers for jewelry.

Send the stands in to Christmas lights recycling programs. Several North American companies offer light recycling, many times offering reward discounts on new strands. As long as you are willing to pay to mail a box in this is by far the most conveniently responsible way to dispose of old lights. When sending in lights, simply throw them in a box that fits the lights fairly securely. Do not include packing material, original packaging, or other paraphernalia.

2008 Recycle Christmas Lights for the Kids Campaign

Christmas Light Source

Proceeds benefits to Toys for Tots

To redeem 10% discount on new lights (via e-mail), include on a card in the box your name, address and e-mail address.

Mail to:

Christmas Light Source Recycling Program

1923 6th Avenue

Fort Worth, TX 76110

Christmas Lights Recycling Program

Environmental Lights.com

Contest: Send in "the most unusual or ancient Christmas lights" to win 15% discount. Not every participant wins.

Mail to:

EnvironmentalLights.com

Recycling

11235 West Bernardo Court, Suite 102

San Diego, CA 92127

HolidayLEDs.com Christmas Light Recycling Program

Include name and e-mail to receive 15% coupon

Mail to:

HolidayLEDs.com

Attn: Recycling Program

2500 W. Argyle St.

Jackson, MI 49202

HolidayLEDs.com suggests banding together with members of your community to fill boxes of lights to recycle together.

Sources: "Christmas Lights." World Environmental Organization.

"How can I reuse for recycle...broken Christmas tree lights?" How can I Recycle This? Forum