Recycling Broken Holiday Lights

Well, the holidays are over and I’ve been hanging onto these broken lights since last year to figure out what I can do with them?? 

I hate that it falls onto the consumer to figure this stuff out. A lot of recycling centers don’t have the capability for recycling the glass, copper and plastics from holiday lights sets. The easy thing to do would be just throw them in the trash right? Out of sight – out of mind?? No, please don’t do that. 

Let me give you a stat here, a basic, single set of holiday string lights can take up to 1,000 years (or more) to breakdown in the landfill!  And that isn’t even considering if your lights are on the older side, that they may contain compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s) which can leak mercury into the environment. Not to mention how dangerous to animals string lights can be if they were to get tangled in them. 

Recycle your lights responsibly! First look into your city’s solid waste management website if they offer any type of recycling system – this is often common to see recycling drop offs right after the holidays if you live in a large city. Often this is the free route. 

If you live in a small town that doesn’t have access to these choices, then your next best choice may be to send them for recycling. 

The Christmas Light Source is based in Texas and they take any type of string lights during the entire year. How does this work are you thinking? Here’s the breakdown:

You need to pay for your own shipping to send the lights. So use the cheapest route. Most likely that may look like waiting until you get a large amount of broken lights to send all at once. Ask around your neighborhood if people are willing to help with shipping costs to send their lights with you too. Those flat rate boxes come in three sizes from the US postal service. You can ship any weight in the boxes, and you’ll probably get the most value for your money in this situation. 

Mail to:
Christmas Light Source
Recycling Program
4313 Elmwood Drive
Benbrook, TX 76116

Once they receive the lights they send them to a recycler in their area. They receive a small amount of money per pound of lights, like when returning aluminum cans. The money they get is donated to the Dallas Toys for Tots every year! Plus they will email you a coupon for 10% off new LEDs through their website. I think this is a good deal all around, you are responsibly recycling, getting a potential discount and giving back to a local community group!

So please, keep the environment in mind next time you find your old holiday lights not working or broken. Just because we throw something away doesn’t mean it just disappears.

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