By AMY RICKER
Great Bend Post
It’s that time of year again. All over the world, Christmas lights are going up to decorate for the holiday season. Unless you buy brand new lights every year, you may find some lights that don’t work anymore. While it may seem easy to throw those strings of broken bulbs away, there are some environmental concerns to be conscious of outside of probably ending up in a landfill.
Suppose you have older strings of lights that are labeled CFLs. In that case, you will want to be extra careful as these may release mercury into the environment, so simply tossing them in the garbage isn’t the safest way to dispose of these decorations. Instead, you can bring them to Rosewood Services to have them recycled.
E-cycle Manager Duane Dipman says Rosewood Services has been recycling Christmas lights for two years.
“Actually, what we recycle is the copper out of the wire. We have our bin at 2200 Main across from the park. People can drop off their used Christmas lights year around along with other electronics,” explains Dipman.
Rosewood has a dropbox so that items can be dropped off 24 hours, seven days a week. But it’s not just old Christmas lights that they recycle.
“We take everything from VCRs to flat-screen TVs. We don’t take the old style of monitors because we can’t recycle those. Printers, fax machines, laptops, televisions, video game consoles, DVD players, VCRs, cameras, cell phones, and telephone equipment but no CRT monitors.”
Dipman says when it comes to recycling the Christmas lights, the ends are cut off the wire, which is then sent to be shredded. The wires are ground up, and then the copper is separated from the aluminum and steel. In some cases, the plastic is recycled as well.
Unlike other materials that lose their strength when ground up, copper can be reused repeatedly without losing its durability.
If you have electronics to donate to be recycled, you can drop them off at Rosewood’s recycle bin at 2200 Main in Great Bend.