Your Green Life: "Recycling Holiday Lights"

By KBJR News 1

December 12, 2013 Updated Dec 12, 2013 at 9:30 AM CDT

Duluth, MN
Holiday lights are always a chore to put up and take down, but it's actually easy to recycle the bad or broken ones.
Western Lake Superior Sanitary District is one drop–off point you can go to.

Lorilee Blais, the Environmental Program Coordinator at WLSSD said, "We want people to recycle their holiday light steads and any electrical cords because there is copper in all of those things."

Copper is an extremely valuable resource used in most electronics.
So why would you just throw it into a landfill?

"These are resources that can be re-utilized so that we don't have to pull virgin resources out of the environment." said Blais.

Another drop–off spot is in Superior, at the Re–Store.
They collect broken lights and recycle them.

Teresa Backes, the ReStore Program Manager told me, "Anybody who has holiday lights that they don't want anymore, they can bring them and drop them off and we will recycle them."

If you're looking to get rid of working holiday lights you can donate them to the Re–Store. They'll sell the used lights this holiday season!

"Lights that are in good condition, we're actually going to bundle them up and sell them for 50 cents a bundle, so then people can save money that way too. It prevents going into the landfill and helps people in the community." said Backes.

All the proceeds from the donated lights to the Re–Store will go back to Habitat for Humanity.

Meteorologist Adam Lorch
