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Holiday bulbs part of program |
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Tuesday, 29 December 2009 |
By KATIE YANTIS
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — The Auglaize County Recycling program has increased efforts once again to expand the group of materials that can be recycled.
District Coordinator Dave Reichelderfer recently announced local residents can now recycle old holiday
lights.
"We just found a place where we are able to get ride of them," Reichelderfer said.
"With people going to LED lights, there are a lot of the older lights that people would be getting rid of."
As residents take down Christmas decorations, he said, they should keep in mind the new policy of recycling the lights.
"We can take the light strings and the bulbs, the whole works," Reichelderfer said.
"It will be less things that they will have to put in their trash that will go to the landfill. If they pay for tags, it will also save on what your trash cost would
be."
He said the program is including "holiday lights" because of the expanded use of lighting decorations.
"We are calling them 'holiday lights' as some people now put up orange lights for Halloween and the Christmas lights are also up for New Years," Reichelderfer said in a recent news release.
Reichelderfer said the most common time for recycling the lights will be this time of year it will be offered year round.
"I won't imagine we will get very many other than during the holiday period," Reichelderfer said. "If someone brings some in, it won't be a problem to handle it."
The lights can be recycled at any of the dropoff locations that are manned on Saturdays and also in curbside boxes in St. Marys and Wapakoneta.
He said the lights will be able to be recycled in a variety of ways.
"They will take out all of the things they can get," Reichelderfer said. "They will recycle the plastic back into other things; the older bulbs, they will recycle glass out of those and the little brass ends, and of course the copper out of them for the wire."
In addition to holiday lights, Reichelderfer said he wanted to remind residents of other holiday recycling tips.
"We also recycle gift wrap — as long as it is the paper gift wrap, not the foil," Reichelderfer said. "That (paper gift wrap) can go right in with the newspaper."
Reichelderfer also brought up cardboard recycling and a tip local residents can use to ease the recycling process.
"We get a lot of cardboard this time of year, packages, boxes," Reichelderfer said.
"One of the biggest problems we have with all the boxes are the plastic windows with the kids toys. That is actually contamination to the people that are recycling the cardboard — it helps to just pull that out of the box."
He also added that styrofoam used in packaging cannot be recycled locally. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 February 2010 )
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