Here's how to recycle used and broken holiday lights in Kansas City - KMBC Kansas City

Kansas City: Here's how to recycle used and broken holiday lights

Here's how to recycle used and broken holiday lights in Kansas City

Hardware stores and even the KC Zoo are stepping up to properly dispose of old holiday lights

As decorations come down in the days and weeks following the holidays, a new wave of lights is ready for retirement.

Disposing of broken and used holiday lights can be difficult. Fortunately, Kansas City has plenty of options to get rid of your old adornments sustainably.

Westlake Hardware general manager Peter Jones spoke with KMBC 9 on the day after Christmas to talk about the huge recycle box out front of his store on Antioch Road.

"Holiday lights are not allowed to go into your recycling, so they go straight into a landfill. If you don't bring them to somebody that does the recycling," Jones said.

Jones says his store has already been a very popular drop-off spot.

"Last year, we got 6,600 and some odd pounds, so quite a bit," Jones said.

It's the same story at the KC Zoo. 2023 is the third year that they've been collecting the discarded lights to the tune of nearly 1,000 pounds. They say broken Christmas lights can harm the environment, so they'll make sure to get them disposed of properly.

Jones and the zoo agree that the process is pretty straightforward. Just grab your old lights, throw them in a bag, and drop them off.

"There's a lot of materials in there that do need to get recycled, like copper wire, like the plastics, like the other metals that are in there, but it's too much of a process for the recycling centers to get that material safely out," Jones said.

In addition to the Zoo, all 31 Kansas City area Westlake Hardware locations will have bins out front to collect lights.

You can take your old lights to the zoo’s guest relations desk between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. The last day you can drop them off is Sunday, Jan. 7.