Did you know? The very first electrical lights to hang on a Christmas tree were created by Thomas Edison in 1880. By 1933, lights were hung on the famous New York City Rockefeller tree, and today, over 5 miles of LED lights grace the tree. That’s around 30,000 lights!
It wouldn’t be a Christmas tree with lights, and lucky for us, tree lights are easy to find and inexpensive to buy. What to do you with those lights when they no longer work? You can recycle them! They will be ground up in to tiny pieces and then sorted in to copper, plastic and other components and made in to new products. However, you can’t put strings of lights into the regular recycling stream. Once in the recycling bin, they become “tanglers” and get wound up in the machinery used to sort through the material. Rather, you take unwanted Christmas lights to Pollution Solution for proper disposal. Pollution Solution will be open on January 15th from 8am to 12pm for our Post-Holiday Electronics drop off, and then will open for the year on March 12th.
What else can you do to help minimize the impact of the holidays on the environment?
- Switch to LED lights. They last twice as long, are much harder to break, and use a fraction of the energy.
- Americans generate about 25% more trash during the holidays. To help reduce your holiday trash, recycle cardboard by breaking it down and putting it in the recycling bin. Eliminate the use of paper plates and cups when possible. Purchase items with minimal packaging.
- High ink content and poor fiber quality makes wrapping paper non-recyclable. Wrap gifts in newspaper or butcher paper or use reusable gift bags or boxes instead.
- Add rechargeable batteries to your gifts that are battery operated.
- Shop responsibly. Take your own shopping bags, and always look for products that were made from recycled materials.
- Think about gifting experiences such as concerts, trips, or movies instead of material things. A donation to a favorite charity on someone’s behalf is also a great way to share the love during the holidays.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday season! Please be patient as we try to keep up with the amount of recycling in our bins. If they are full, try another location or come back another time. Please do not leave items beside the bins. Thanks for all you do to help keep Randolph County clean and green and have a very Merry Christmas!