Holiday Lights

Holiday and string lights should NEVER be placed in your recycling cart or at a SWACO recycling drop-off location. Holiday lights are considered tanglers and will tangle around the gears of the equipment at the recycling facility causing the facility to shut down.

Specialized recycling programs can recover metals from old electronics like copper, iron, and steel, while toxic elements such as lead, cadmium, and beryllium are captured for proper safe disposal. Best of all, recycling E-waste reduces the need to mine for rare earth minerals such as lithium, while reducing the amount of waste that’s going to our landfills.

Almost any item that has batteries or a cord to plug in counts as E-waste, and most kinds can be recycled.

Fortunately, our community has many ways and places to recycle unwanted electronics and, this time of year, there are also seasonal programs that collect holiday lights for recycling. Check out the list below to find a collection point near you and be sure to click the link to learn about what kinds of E-waste are accepted at each one and what its hours of operation are.

Seasonal Holiday Lights Recycling Programs