It’s that time of year again, bring out your holiday lights and untangle the wadded mess, but what do you do with the strings that no longer light up? Most people just throw them in the trash, but not anymore.
The Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM) in partnership with WCCO TV, Xcel Energy, Snyders Drug Stores and the Clean Energy Resource Teams, announces the launch of Recycle Your Holidays™. This is a first-of-its-kind effort in the country starting mid-November and going through January 2010 all throughout the state.
“Recycle Your Holidays recycles every part of the light strings. Even the little lights are recycled by another project partner, Green Lights Recycling.” stated Ellen Telander, Executive Director of RAM. “This year our goal is to recycle over 50,000 light strands and to encourage Minnesotans to use LED light strands instead, which will save a lot of energy.”
Minnesotans are urged to drop off their old, broken holiday lights at any participating Snyders Drug Stores or various locations during the holiday season. Recycling locations can be found on RAM’s website.
Unlike any other holiday lights recycling program in the country, RAM will recycle all lights and cords free of charge by working with local vocational centers that provide meaningful jobs and job training. Another great added benefit is the reduction of waste going to landfills—helping keep our air and water cleaner.
“This is a great chance to combine recycling with energy efficiency,” says Joel Haskard, a coordinator with the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs). “People can reduce their home energy costs with new LED lights, plus there is a 85-90% reduction of energy using recycled copper from the old holiday lights versus extracting copper.” Haskard notes that many utilities and hardware stores now offer rebates on LED holiday lights.
Another energy benefit are the savings from recycling copper. By one estimate, recycling copper takes about 10 percent of the energy it takes to extract it. “It’s very energy intensive to create new copper,” Haskard said. “It’s a big deal.” According to estimates by the Clean Energy Resource Teams, recycling 50,000 pounds of lights in Minnesota would save about 530,000 kilowatt hours, or about 960,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. That’s assuming 20,000 pounds of lights are replaced by LEDs and that homeowners with lights use them for about six hours a day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
Recycle Your Holidays™ provide community pick-up locations with:
- FREE recycling bin with signage
- FREE pick up service
- FREE recycling of all holiday light strings and electrical cords
- PROMOTION on all media releases as a drop-off site, driving traffic
Call or email RAM today to offer this free recycling service to your customers. Show you care about the environment and provide meaningful jobs in the community! Learn more and sign up by calling 651-641-4560, emailing ram@recycleminnesota.org, or visiting http://www.recycleminnesota.org
