Recycle This Pittsburgh

String Lights

About These Items

These lights are particularly common during winter holidays where they are often used to decorate houses or trees, or as ambient outdoor lighting in warmer months. Anyone who’s owned these kinds of lights has undoubtedly dealt with strings that stop lighting, in part or in whole. You can’t recycle these lights in curbside Pittsburgh recycling, but there are a number of local locations that collect lights for recycling as well as several national mail-in programs. (see below)

Though there are programs to recycle string lights, because of their complex, multi-material design, they are not the easiest or most efficient item to recycle. They contain copper wiring, glass, plastic, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Many times these lights can actually be repaired with just a little investigation, so before you toss your lights, check out the tips below to get them working again. Then, if you no longer want them, you can pass them on and keep them out of the landfill.

Tips for Repairing String Lights.

If you’ve got a string of lights whose physical wire is intact but some or all of the bulbs are no longer lighting up when plugged in, then try these 3 steps to see if you can get the lights back to working order.

1. Check for missing or broken bulbs: Many string lights won’t function properly if even one bulb is broken or missing. Most light sets come with a couple extra bulbs, or you can use bulbs from a different working string to swap in and test before ordering replacements.

2. Check the fuses: Most lights have small fuses in their plug and most also come with a couple extra fuses included with the spare bulbs (look closely, they are small!). You can open up the fuse panel in the plug and swap out the fuses to check if this is your problem.

3. Use a light tester tool. These tools can usually help with a variety of issues with string lights, from removing bulbs, to testing fuses and bulbs, etc. If you have a lot of holiday lights, investing in a light tester tool may be worth it.

Drop-off or mail-in for recycling.

Bonus Tip: Before you take your lights in for recycling, consider removing any bulbs or fuses that you believe still work to hold on as extra replacement parts for other string lights you may own. There’s no reason to shred perfectly good bulbs or fuses along with a broken wire. In this way, one broken string light set can help you keep several others in working order over the years. Dead but unbroken bulbs can also be repurposed into ornaments or fancy present adornments.

Drop-off locally.

There are a number of places locally that will accept string lights year-round for recycling.

• Castriota Metals and Recycling: (412.431.1832, 92 Crane Ave, 15226) Castriota will actually pay you around $0.04 per pound for your lights and other electronic waste
• Evolution E-cycling will take these lights for recycling for free.
• Michael Brothers Hauling & Recycling (South Hills location, 901 Horning Rd. 15236) Michael Brothers actually sponsors in-store christmas light collections each year around the Pittsburgh area as a partner with WTAE-TV’s yearly holiday fundraiser, project Bundle-Up, which provides warm clothes for kids. But you can also drop off lights at their South Hills location year round.

Mail-in programs.

There are several national mail-in programs for string lights. If you’re looking to replace lights, you can take advantage of these programs to get a coupon for a new set of lights.

• Christmas Light Source: Based in Texas; gives 10% off coupon for purchases in their store; proceeds go to purchase donations for DFW Marine Toys for Tots Foundation
• Environmental LED: Based in Michigan, gives 10% off coupon for purchases in their store.
• Holiday LEDs: Based in Wisconsin

Do you know another service that accepts these lights? Let us know!