Holiday lights recycling
Do you have a pile of burned-out holiday lights? Are you replacing old holiday lights with energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) lights? Don't throw out your holiday lights - recycle them!
These holiday lights recycling programs, offered by retailers and other organizations, accept your old holiday light strands for recycling and send them to processors that recycle the copper wire inside them.
For drop-off programs, call first if possible to confirm they are taking the lights, get more specific location information if needed, confirm the hours, and see if they have any restrictions. These programs are free unless otherwise noted in the listing.
For example, most holiday lights recycling programs want you to remove large glass bulbs (the smaller bulbs are okay) from light strands, and remove any excessive plastic attachments from the light strands, since that glass and plastic is not recyclable (you can throw those materials away yourself at home).
- Ace Hardware Maple Leaf external link neighborhood store in north Seattle.
- Christmas-Light-Source.com external link - Mail-in recycling program – Sender pays postage.
- HolidayLEDs.com external link – Mail-in recycling program – Sender pays postage.
- McLendon Hardware external link – All 7 Puget Sound area locations external link .
- Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium program external link – 3 locations, 2 in Tacoma and 1 in Eatonville (scroll down, and click on Recycle your Lights). Ends Jan. 12.
- Recology external link stores in Bothell, Burien external link , Issaquah external link and Shoreline external link . Fee of $1.25 per strand of lights.
- Ridwell external link – Paid recycling collection program serving some King County neighborhoods. One-day holiday lights collection service offered Jan. 13-24 for those customers.
- Uptekk external link recycling drop-off center in Pacific.
- West Seattle Recycling external link drop-off center.
Other businesses and organizations may also offer holiday lights recycling programs. This list will be updated as new programs are announced. When shopping for new holiday lights at retailers, ask if they have a program. Thanks for recycling your holiday lights!
Learn more about eco-tastic holiday décor. And learn more about Christmas/holiday lights and how they are recycled in this Dec. 3, 2018 article external link by Seattle Times business reporter Benjamin Romano, including a quote from King County's Tom Watson.
