HomeMy WebLinkAboutRecycle Holiday Lights 2012
City of Edina • 4801 W. 50th St. • Edina, MN 55424
Contact: Jordan Gilgenbach, Communications Coordinator
Phone 952-826-0396 • jgilgenbach@EdinaMN.gov • www.EdinaMN.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Recycle Your Old Holiday Lights at Edina City Hall
Edina, Minn., Nov. 21, 2012 – The City of Edina is working with the Recycling Association of Minnesota
(RAM) on the fourth-annual holiday lights recycling program, “Recycle Your Holidays.”
RAM, in partnership with WCCO-TV, Great River Energy, Ace Hardware and the Clean Energy Resource
Teams (CERT), began the holiday lights recycling effort in 2009. According to RAM’s website,
www.RecycleMinnesota.org, its yearly goal is 200,000 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. Strings may also be mailed directly to RAM at P.O. Box 14497, St.
Paul, MN 55114.
For more information about RAM or the “Recycle Your Holidays 2010-2011” program, visit
www.RecycleMinnesota.org. To learn more about Edina’s recycling programs, contact Wilmot, 952-
826-0463.
-30-