The Confessional: Do You Still Have Your Holiday Lights Up?
by Ashley Schiller
Published on February 16th, 2009
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Feeling the procrastination bug when it comes to taking down your holiday decor? While it can take some time getting around to all that work, your decision to recycle what you can should only take you a moment.
Especially when it comes to holiday lights, your options to recycle these sparkly strands are easy. In fact, HolidayLEDs.com recently announced that almost 5,500 pounds of incandescent Christmas lights from this year’s holiday season will be processed in its recycling program by the end of this month.
Is it time to trade out that knot of incandescents for an energy-efficient strand of LED lights? Don't forget to recycle the old set. Photo: Consumerist.com
Only the second year HolidayLEDs.com has run its recycling program, it’s success has surprised even the company president, who was very pleased with last year’s 3,000 pounds of lights recycled. A key part of the program is an incentive to recycle your old lights – a coupon for 15 percent off the company’s energy-efficient LED Christmas lights. This year’s program will not end until February 28, so there’s still time to ship your old lights and get a discount coupon for next year.
About 3,000 pounds have already been recycled and another 2,000 pounds are awaiting recycling. The lights are currently collected in Jackson, Mich., but the company is working to establish additional locations around the country.
But holiday recycling hardly stops with lights. How about that your Christmas tree, is it still standing? Recycled Christmas trees are most often used for mulch, but they have some more usual uses as well. In Louisiana, recycled Christmas trees are used to help prevent erosion along the wetlands. These tree fences also help protect the area against hurricane surges. Since the program began in the 1980’s, more than eight miles of tree fences have been created and 250 to 300 acres of marshland have been restored.
