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 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 7 to 11:30 a.m.
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.
Residents are asked to place light strands in either clear bags or cardboard boxes when delivering them to the recovery complex.
For more information about proper disposal of electronics or other materials, call (609) 499-1001 or email recycle@co.burlington.nj.us.
