It’s that wonderful time of the year when Burlington County homes, shops and trees are aglow with holiday lights.
While decorating for the holidays is a tradition many families enjoy, too often strings of non-working holiday lights end up being tossed out with household trash or worse – discarded in recycling cans.
Strands of lights must be kept out of curbside recycling because they tangle and damage the mechanical equipment used in the County’s Recycling Center.
There is a greener way to safely dispose of these decorations. Instead of discarding non-working lights in the trash, the Burlington County Commissioners are encouraging residents to give them a second life by bringing them to the Burlington County Resource Recovery Complex, where a permanent electronics disposal center is staffed Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 4:30 PM and Saturdays from 7 AM to 11:30 AM.
The Resource Recovery Complex is located at 22000 Burlington-Columbus Road in Florence. Residents bringing lights or other electronics should enter the complex and follow signs to the scalehouse, and then continue to the e-waste recycling area.
E-waste includes old televisions, computers, monitors, printers, batteries and other small electronics devices.
Some municipalities collect holiday lights and other electronics at their municipal e-waste drop off sites. Residents should check to see if their municipality accepts them.
“As Burlington County residents unbox their holiday decorations, we’re asking them not to add more waste to landfills or risk damages to our recycling equipment,” said Burlington County Commissioner Deputy Director Tom Pullion, liaison to the Department of Solid Waste and Recycling. “Bringing non-working lights to the Resource Recovery Complex gives components a new useful life. It’s the eco-friendly way to decorate for the holidays.”
“We’re encouraging everyone to go green while decorating,” said Pullion. “It’s a free service for county residents and the right thing to do.”
Residents are asked to place light strands in either clear bags or cardboard boxes when delivering them to the Recovery Complex.
Burlington County is a state leader in recycling and one of the only New Jersey counties to collect recycling from all its municipalities at no charge to either towns or residents.
Last year, more than 84 million pounds of recyclables were collected from Burlington County residents, saving their towns more than $3.7 million in landfill tipping fees. The total included more than 223,000 pounds of e-waste.
More information about recycling is available on the County’s free Recycle Coach app. The app can be downloaded from Apple App Store or the GooglePlay app store and has information about what materials are accepted and updates and alerts about collection schedules for each town, plus advice and tips for recycling right.
For more information about proper disposal of electronics or other materials, call 609-499-1001 or email recycle@co.burlington.nj.us.