HomeMy WebLinkAboutRecycle Holiday Lights 2013
City of Edina • 4801 W. 50th St. • Edina, MN 55424
Contact: Michael McGivern, Communications Intern
Phone 952-826-0396 • CommIntern@EdinaMN.gov • www.EdinaMN.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Recycle Your Old Holiday Lights at Edina City Hall
Edina, Minn., Dec. 11, 2013 – The City of Edina is working with the Recycling Association of Minnesota
(RAM) on the fifth-annual holiday lights recycling program, “Recycle Your Holidays.”
RAM, in partnership with WCCO-TV, Great River Energy, Eden Prairie Liquors and the Clean Energy
Resource Teams (CERTS), began the holiday lights recycling effort in 2009. According to RAM’s website,
www.RecycleMinnesota.org, its yearly goal is 125,000 pounds of lights for recycling.
Minnesotans are encouraged to replace their old lights with energy-efficient LED lights and recycle the old
strands. Switching to LED lights will not only save energy, but also save consumers money on home energy
costs. To sweeten the deal, many utility companies and hardware stores offer rebates on LED lights.
“Maybe you have that string with several burnt out light bulbs, or you are upgrading to newer or better lights.
Recycle them instead of throwing them away,” said City of Edina Recycling Coordinator Solvei Wilmot. “This
keeps them out of the landfills while creating jobs.”
Recycle Your Holidays recycles every part of a light string. Everything from light bulbs to copper is recycled.
According to RAM, creating new copper is very energy intensive. Recycling copper takes about 10 percent of
the energy it would take to create new copper.
Edina residents can drop off holiday light strings until Jan. 1 at Edina City Hall, 4801 W. 50th St., or Concord
Elementary School, 5900 Concord Ave. Other drop off locations statewide are listed on the RAM website,
RecycleMinnesota.org.
For more information about RAM or the “Recycle Your Holidays” program, visit
www.RecycleMinnesota.org. To learn more about Edina’s recycling programs, contact Wilmot, 952-
826-0463.
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