It’s that time of year. You’ve unpacked all the Christmas decorations and started adorning the house. The first is to put your Christmas lights up inside and out. But what if your lights are not working or are broken? Can you recycle Christmas lights?
First, you should see if you can repair your broken Christmas String lights. If they are still in good condition, they can be donated to a local charity or ask around to see if friends or family are in need of some new ones. If they are beyond repair and you need to dispose of them, the best option is to recycle them.
Christmas lights are made from mixed materials that can be recovered and recycled. However, they do not belong in your curbside recycling bin. They must be dropped off or mailed to a specialist recycling center.
Christmas lights also do not belong in your general waste bin. They contain valuable materials like copper that should be kept in circulation. They can also contain toxic metals like lead or mercury that can leach into the environment.
Read on to learn why it is important to recycle your Christmas lights, and we will provide you with a list of locations to help.
What are Christmas Lights made of?
Christmas lights are made from a number of different materials, all of which do not biodegrade and can take hundreds of years to break down in landfill. Commonly string lights are made from plastic, metal, and glass. The type of plastic used is generally Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), referred to as plastic number 3. This plastic cannot be recycled in your curbside recycling bin.
Christmas lights also often contain copper wiring. Copper is a valuable metal and can be recycled over and over again. The bulbs in the Christmas lights are usually made of glass but may also be made from plastic. They can contain small amounts of toxic materials like mercury or lead, which can leach into the environment if they are disposed of in landfills.
Can Christmas Lights be recycled?
Yes, Christmas lights can be recycled.
There are various options depending on where you live, for recycling broken Christmas lights.
In many locations, Christmas lights are referred to as e-waste (Electronic-waste) or WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) because they have a plug or use batteries. Learn more about e-waste and how predictions suggest there will be 74Mt of e-waste by 2030, making it the world’s fastest-growing waste stream.
Recycling your Christmas lights reduces landfills, reduces the risk to the environment, allows valuable materials to be used again, and supports the circular economy.
How to recycle Christmas Lights
Your old Christmas lights do not belong in your curbside recycling bin. Nor do they belong in the general trash bin.
As mentioned above, Christmas lights contain materials that can be recycled and sometimes materials that can be hazardous to the environment. Therefore it is important to dispose of them properly.
Donate them
If your Christmas lights are in good condition, then you can donate them to a local charity. It might be worth checking with your friends and family first to see if anyone is in need.
You can also try a local freecycle or buy nothing group and see if anyone wants them.
If your Christmas string lights are not working or have missing or broken lights, then it is best to make sure you dispose of them appropriately. Refer below for some options. Charity stores have enough to deal with and don’t need to be sorting through broken lights just to throw them out.
By disposing of them yourself, you also can make sure they get recycled.
Send them to a specialist recycling center
There are a few options for recycling your old Christmas lights, depending on where you are located.
Some recycling centers accept them, and a few companies have set up drop-off points in their stores. You can find some options below, depending on your location. If you can’t find a recycling option close to you, try contacting your local authority for recommendations.
Where to recycle Christmas Lights near me
United States:
- Hardware Stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, or True Value often have recycling drop-off bins in-store. Be sure to call them before you head there.
- Christmas Light Source has a Christmas lights recycling program. You can post your old broken Christmas lights to them, and they use the proceed to buy books, educational games, puzzles, and toys to be donated to the DFW Marine Tosy for Tots Foundation. Plus, you get a 10% voucher to use in their store.
- Holiday LED’s has a similar Christmas Light Recycling Program. They also accept deliveries of old lights and recycle them for you. In return, you get a voucher for new lights.
- If you live in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Washington, D.C., you can recycle your Christmas lights at Mom’s Organic Market (only between Nov 26th and January 31st).
- Greencitizen also has a recycling program with drop-off, pick-up, and mail-in options in the SF Bay Area.
- In New Jersey, you can take them to Rockaway Recycling.
- Check with your local municipal waste service.
United Kingdom:
- You can either take them to your nearest household recycling center. Find a list of them here at Recycling in the UK by County.
- Check with your local municipal waste service.
Australia:
- In Australia, Christmas lights are classified as e-waste and so talk to your local council or recycling center to find a drop-off location for e-waste in your area.
- In South Australia, you can try Electronic Recycling Australia.
- If you are an organization, you can check out Eco cycle’s prepaid collection boxes.
How to take care of your Christmas Lights
It’s very important to think about how much energy and materials have gone into making your Christmas lights. If they still work, keep using them and ask yourself, “do I really need a new set?”.
So much time and energy go into making the Christmas string lights that you already own, not to mention the money you have already spent. It’s good to look after them. There are many ways you can do to take care of them. The first thing to consider is to buy good quality lights that will last a long time. Next, you want to take good care by doing the following:
- Taking the string lights down as soon as the holiday festivities are over. This is particularly the case for outside lights. Weather and the elements take their toll on the plastic and other materials that the lights are made from and degrade them. Also, the longer they are outside, the more likely it is that they will get snagged or break.
- Store your lights in a good watertight container, especially if you keep them in your garage.
- You can get ready-made spools or bags to store your lights however we recommend that you cut a piece of cardboard and wind the lights around that. Recycling a cardboard box while storing your lights properly. It means less tangling when you get them out again.
- Check for missing or broken light globes before you put them away. You will definitely appreciate it in a year when you pull them out of storage.
- Remove batteries for storage.
How to fix your broken Christmas String Lights?
Just because one or two of your lights are not working does not mean you have to throw away the whole set.
Depending on the design of the light string, it can only take one globe to be missing or broken to stop the whole string from working. Christmas lights are made in strands. The electricity runs through the wire and into the bulb, then out the other side back into the wire. When a bulb is broken or missing, the electricity does not keep running through it. To fix it, you only need to find the broken light bulb and replace it. If you would like to learn more about how this works and how to replace them check out How to fix broken Christmas lights, thanks to C/net.com here.
Eco-freindly options for Christmas Lights
There are so many options to decorate your home this year without buying more Christmas string lights. Here are some great ideas:
- switch to LED lights
- Make garlands from popcorn or cranberries for your tree
- use solar powered lights
- only turn the lights on when you need to
If you want to learn more about reducing your impact at Christmas read our article Recycling at Christmas: 9 Great Tips to Reduce and Recycle this Christmas.
