Moving Light Along

Umbra on LED holiday lights

Posted by Bricolage at 12:51 PM on 07 Dec 2005

Still getting used to those icicle lights? You're a trend behind. The hot new thing in holiday illumination is energy-saving LED lights. But what's to be done with the scratched and fizzled light strings of old? Today, a reader wonders how to relight up her life, and advice maven Umbra Fisk offers counsel on making the switch.

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5 Comments | Post a Comment

Throw them away???!!!???

I'm sorry, but I think it's really irresponsible to blithely advocate throwing functioning christmas tree lights in the rubbish. I mean, donate them to an art centre, or a charitable organisation, make a table centrepiece to stop using candles, do something with them, find out if there's anywhere in your area that will recycle them, but shouldn't the landfill always be the last resort? I'm disturbed to see Grist advocating the kind of disposable consumerism that is so poisonous to the ecological movement.

by cicatrix at 2:26 PM on 07 Dec 2005

Moving Light Along

FreeCycle them! www.freecycle.org for your local FreeCycle group. If you are moving from minis to LEDs then help someone else move from big to mini. People also use them for art projects, etc. The large ones are actually best for non-illuminating art projects.

gabh an latha Richard Eugene, OR, USA

by rglater at 4:01 PM on 07 Dec 2005

Discarding Xmas lights

Every package of mini-lights that Ive seen has borne the warning, "contains lead". I assume that it's in the solder or the insulation. It gives one pause before tossing these in the trash. Better to cannibalize an older string and keep replacing bulbs in a newer one as they burn out, then use the wire for something when all the bulbs are gone.

by dwolk at 6:59 PM on 07 Dec 2005

bad idea from the getgo

Replacing incandescents for LEDs for christmas
lights is wrong it at least 3 different ways.

First, the thing that kills most christmas lights
is the wiring, not the bulbs. After about 5 years,
the connections to the bulbs corrode or loosen,
and repair is impossible. Putting an LED that can
last 30,000 hours on a light string that is good
for at most 5 years is a waste.

Next, look at the waste stream generated by LED
based christmas lights. LEDs are made of
gallium arsenide (along with some copper, and
plastic, and maybe a little lead or tin). Light
bulbs are made of tungsten, glass, aluminum or
brass, and iron. I suspect that it is safer to
discard a light bulb than to discard an LED.

Finally, replacing working strings of bulbs with
another working string of bulbs encourages
consumer based wasted, as has been pointed out
by all the previous commenters.

by retrosurf at 1:05 PM on 12 Dec 2005

what to do with old Christmas lights

Move to British Columbia!! Here, BC Hydro offers rebate coupons towards the purchase of new l.e.d. lights for each string of old lights that you hand in. They do the same for those old, energy-inefficient halogen "torchiere" floor lamps.
Evolved, aren't they??

-Gordon Harris,
Campbell River, BC

by gordonf at 8:37 PM on 13 Dec 2005

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