CINCINNATI — Whether you’re waiting for the new year or are taking them down now, if you’ve got old broken lights, Great Parks of Hamilton County wants them and it might just help the environment. 

What You Need To Know

  • Great Parks of Hamilton County teamed up with Cohen Recycling to recycle broken holiday lights 

  • Organizers say the glass and plastics are reused, and Great Parks gets paid to recycle them 

  • Organizers say in the past 11 years since they've run the program, they've collected 40 tons of lights
  • They'll be collecting this year until Feb. 1

Maryanne Chmielewski couldn’t wait to take down her Christmas lights. 

“We had a catastrophe with lights, so they just won't work," she said. “You have to put fuses in, and then you have to try to figure out the bulbs, and it's just not worth it.”

Where she’s taking her broken down lights might just help the environment.

“I didn’t wanna throw them away so we just put them here," Chmielewski said.

She put them in a barrel at the Winton Centre in Hamilton County. The lights will go from the barrel to a dumpster.

“This is plastic, it's metal, it's glass. It's not going to biodegrade," Great Parks Sustainability Coordinator Stephanie Bacher said. "We have a very limited amount of landfills space in our county."

That’s why none of the lights will be going to the landfill. Bacher said the Great Parks of Hamilton County teamed up with Cohen Recycling.

“They've bumped us up," Bacher said. "We used to get 30 yard containers, and now we get 40 yard containers because we have so much material to collect."

She said Cohen breaks down the lights and reuses the glass and plastics in them, and the parks department gets paid.

“In about April, once they're done calculating how much we actually did send to them, they will write us a big check, a physically large check, and they make that contribution back to the park," Bacher said. 

She said in the 11 years since they done the recycling program, they’ve collected 40 tons of Christmas lights that could’ve ended up in the landfill.

They’re expecting to add thousands of pounds this season, including what Chmielewski just recycled.

“Just trying to save the planet," Chmielewski said.

Great Parks of Hamilton County will be collecting holiday lights through Feb. 1. You can drop lights off to be recycled at any one of these parks locations:

  • Farbach-Werner Nature Preserve – Ellenwood Nature Barn
  • Glenwood Gardens - Gatehouse
  • Miami Whitewater Forest – Visitor Center
  • Sharon Woods – Sharon Centre
  • Winton Woods – Winton Centre, front and side lobbies
  • Woodland Mound – Breezy Point Pavilio

Cohen Recycling is also collecting holiday lights at other locations across Ohio. To find one closest to you click here.

Related Stories