- According to Green Citizen, plastic Christmas lights can take up to 450 years to decompose.
- At the Robicheaux Recreation Center, a giant metal recycling is provided so residents can throw away unused or broken tree lights.
- They contain valuable materials like copper, glass, and plastics, which can be re-purposed through recycling programs.
Keep Lafayette Beautiful is partnering with LCG at the Robichaux Recreation Center to help you dispose of your Christmas lights in an environmentally friendly way.
They are providing a giant metal recycling bin in the parking lot so residents can recycle their broken or unused Christmas lights.
The metal recycling bin is the only place in Lafayette where you’re able to recycle the lights. Lafayette Consolidated Government is also urging the community to not put the lights as part of your regular curbside recycling.
The middle of the inside of the lights have essential and precious metals that are able to be re-purposed such as copper, glass, and plastics.
Bess Foret is the Environmental Quality Manager for LCG tells KATC that if thrown away, plastic lights can take up 450 years to decompose in a landfill.
"Every year you have those strings of lights that doesn't work anymore that you need to get rid of and instead of going to the landfill is there a way to purpose them? When they recycle them they take that metal and like other metals, they melt it down and it becomes another metals and that plastic can go somewhere," Foret says.
LCG would like to kindly remind the city to please not throw anything such as trash, cardboards, or Christmas trees other than Christmas lights in the bin.
The recycling bin is located at 1919 Eraste Landry Rd in Lafayette.
