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A Bright Post-Holiday Idea

Posted on 05. Jan, 2011 by Jennifer Marcus Newton in Real-World Ideas

The holidays are officially over. Cookies are baked, delivered, and consumed. Trees felled and decked. Gifts bought, wrapped, and unwrapped. ‘Twas the season. Merry, merry.

I’m not one for long goodbyes — especially when it comes to holiday decorations.

In years past, as I took down stockings and lights, I inevitably encountered a coiled string or two of lights that no longer worked. First it was that pesky single bulb, and then an entire section couldn’t be coaxed to twinkle. Eventually the entire string stayed dark and cheerless. The urge was strong to just pack them away with the rest of the holiday detritus and worry about it the following year.

That may sound Scrooge-y, but by January, I’ve usually seen all I want to of working or non-working holiday lights.

This season, however, I was eager to explore the intricacies of holiday light recycling after reading about a local program in Minnesota.

Only, I don’t like winter much. So on a cold, dark evening, I bundled up my husband, stuffed two strings of broken lights into his pockets, and sent him on a light-recycling expedition. He came back from his journey with a single photo of a modest recycling bin inside a local hardware store. Mission accomplished.

I pressed him for details. There wasn’t much to tell, he said. He took the holiday lights inside a participating hardware store, found the recycling bin, and dropped the lights inside. Then he bought a roof rake to tackle our heavy snow accumulation on the eaves.

Pretty simple. Big impact.

This particular program recycles every part of the string of lights. The program’s initiative, in part, is to encourage the use of LED string lights, which saves energy and reduces home energy costs. The program’s Web site explains that recycling the copper from old holiday lights requires about 90 percent less energy than extracting new copper.

That’s compelling. I can honestly say that until this year, I’d never given a single thought to holiday light disposal. And while my recycling bins in the garage might be getting increasingly compartmentalized, I’m okay with that. It’s refreshing to learn one more way I can slow down my contributions to landfills. I think Santa would be pleased. Maybe even Scrooge, too.

Hope your holidays were bright.

Related Posts
Stuff the Stocking, Not the Landfill
Green New Year’s Resolutions
The 21-Day Recycling Challenge
Watching Your E-Waste in the New Year
Turning Over a Green Leaf

Tags: Energy Efficient, environmentally conscious, Green Living, LED, recycle