This time of year, residents in Burns Lake are unboxing their Christmas decorations, including string lights — and many can relate to that annoying feeling of plugging them in, only to discover the bulbs are no longer working. Thankfully, these burnt out or broken lights can be recycled at more than 140 locations across the province, including Burns Lake Recycling Return-it Depot. Drop off is free, making it easy to properly recycle these broken and burnt out lights.
You can recycle all kinds of string lights in B.C – from retro-style incandescent strings to LED garlands which twinkle and blink – Product Care Recycling, Christmas Lights Blog.
40 million light bulbs have been diverted from landfill by Product Care since 2010 – Product Care Recycling, 2018 Annual Report.
Usage of energy from Christmas lights in B.C. has increased 15 per cent since 2012 says a report from B.C Hydro and 57 per cent of British Columbian’s put up Christmas lights, almost half of which put up three or more stands.
In addition to string lights, Product Care’s program accepts all kinds of lighting products from fixtures, chandeliers, desk lamps to burnt out light bulbs including fluorescent tubes, halogen bulbs, CFL’s, LEDs, and more.
Recycling your Christmas lights gives their parts a new life, rather than adding to our landfills. 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.
Residents can view a list of accepted products and drop off various lighting products—for free—at one of many recycling locations across the province.
