COVINGTON, Ky. – It’s one of the enduring and aggravating mysteries of the holiday season: When you put away your decorative lights last year, they worked, but when you get them out this year, they don’t.

 

(Or, often, only half the strand lights up – no matter how many of those little fuses you replace.)

 

On top of that, the lights are a tangled mess.

 

Rather than sending those lights to a landfill (or smashing every bulb with a hammer and stomping on the wires and cursing them and burying the mess, which is what many of us are tempted to do), we have a better idea:

 

Recycle them.

 

Thanks to a partnership among the City of Covington, Cohen Recycling, and Keep Covington Beautiful, you can now get rid of your non-working holiday lights in a way that helps protect the environment, saves landfill space, and assuages your guilty conscience about participating in this throwaway society.

 

“We’re making it easier for people to recycle,” said Stephanie Bacher, Covington’s Solid Waste & Recycling Supervisor.

 

You can drop off the lights (loose, i.e. not bagged) at two locations until Feb. 1:

You can also visit https://www.cohenusa.com/lights to find other recycling locations.

 

Many kinds of string lights are accepted during this event, including traditional and LED-style bulbs. Other electric holiday yard decorations, such as a projector or the motor on an inflatable character, may be recycled at a Cohen Recycling Center. See the page linked above for a location and call ahead for more information on recycling these items.

 

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Bacher said, Americans generate an additional 7 million pounds of waste between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

 

“We can and should reduce this excess waste, and we’re working with our partners to help Covington residents do so, at least locally,” she said.

 

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