Holiday Light Recycling Pilot

Next date: Wednesday, December 04, 2024 | 02:00 PM to Sunday, January 12, 2025 | 11:59 PM

The City of Orlando wants to keep decorative string lights out of the landfill and away from curbside recycling bins. You can drop off your broken and unwanted lights at the location below:

Drop-off location

• Orlando Solid Waste – 1028 Woods Avenue – Recycling drop-off area
  Available 24 hours
  Look for the yellow bin

Why recycle?

Many holiday lights are made from materials like copper, plastic, and glass, which are extracted from the earth through mining and drilling. These processes can harm the environment, causing air and water pollution, habitat destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling these materials helps reduce the demand for new resources and lesson the environmental impacts of resource extraction.   

Another important reason to recycle decorative string lights is to reduce the volume of waste that ends up in landfills. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away approximately 25% more trash during the holiday season than any other time of year, including an estimated 50 million decorative lights discarded annually. By recycling these lights, we can help reduce landfill waste and its associated environmental impacts.   

Due to recyclable elements in the string lights, many well-intentioned consumers mistakenly place them in their curbside recycle bins. These “tanglers” wrap around recycling equipment, stalling the sorting process, and creating unsafe conditions for workers.

The string lights will go to a local metal recycler (TMR) where they will strip out the metal wiring to be reused.