BY TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
As you’re preparing to deck your halls and light up your tree, it’s important to inspect your lights and discard any that don’t look safe.
You may also be making the move to LED lights and replacing your older, traditional strings of lights. So what do you do with the old ones? Don’t just pitch them in the trash!
Did you know you can recycle your old and unwanted, working and non-working, holiday lights? You can! Just not in your normal municipal recycling bin.
It will take a little extra effort, but your old lights can still do some good for the community when you recycle them with ReStore Habitat for Humanity of Wausau, and they’ve made it easy for Merrill residents to do that by working with several local businesses.
Westside Market, County Market, and Ace Hardware in Merrill all have collection boxes where unwanted Christmas lights can be deposited, and the lights can be in any condition. Together with ReStore, they will help keep old holiday lights out of landfills.
Instead, ReStore Habitat for Humanity of Wausau will collect and recycle those lights, and the money made by recycling the lights will go towards building homes in central Wisconsin.
It’s a holiday win-win! The program runs through Jan. 15, 2024, for this holiday season.