It may be frustrating to discover your Christmas lights are no longer working, but at least you won’t have far to go to recycle them in New West.
Product Care Recycling’s Christmas string lights recycling program is providing recycling for broken lights at more than 140 locations across B.C., including a location in New West. Burnt out or broken lights can be recycled at the Salvation Army Thrift Store at 774 Columbia St.
“Recycling your Christmas lights gives their parts a new life, rather than adding to our landfills,” said a press release from Product Care Recycling. “After lights are dropped off at a collection site, they’re transported to authorized recyclers for processing – right here in Canada. Machines are used to break down the products into component parts (e.g. precious metal, glass, plastic) and harvest the materials that went into the products in the first place.”
According to Product Care Recycling, you can recycle all kinds of string lights in B.C. – from retro-style incandescent strings to LED garlands that twinkle and blink. Since 2010, Product Care has diverted 40 million light bulbs from landfills.
Just how popular are Christmas lights? Data provided by Product Care Recycling indicates 57 per cent of British Columbians put up Christmas lights, and usage of energy from Christmas lights in B.C. has increased 15% since 2012.
In addition to string lights, Product Care’s program accepts all kinds of lighting products, including fixtures such as chandeliers and desk lamps, burnt-out light bulbs including fluorescent tubes, halogen bulbs, CFL’s, LEDs, and more. A full list of accepted products can be found at www.productcare.org/products/lights/british-columbia/.
