Where to recycle unwanted holiday trees, lights in Chicago
Now that the holidays are over, what are you going to do with those unwanted trees and burnt-out lights?
For people looking for more eco-friendly solutions, some groups are offering help.
"It's a little tedious to do, and you gotta get your fingers in there, but it does work. I did that with mine this year," said Sherry Skalko, founder of Reduce Waste Chicago.
Skalko knows the glow may be gone, but there's another life for those unwanted lights. She's part of a team that's collected thousands of pounds of string lights, storing them for recycling.
"They basically strip the copper from them and other valuable metals, as well as metals that we definitely want to keep out of the landfill," she said.
Afterwards, the string lights are headed to a facility in Elgin. Organizers expect that of the 10,000 pounds of lights they have collected, they estimate they have saved about 3000 pounds of copper alone from inside the wires.
It's a process that surprises a lot of people who donate.
"A lot of times they don't. They are like we didn't know which is fantastic, right, because now they are discovering there are ways to responsibly dispose of everyday items in their house," Skalko said.
She said their work has grown over the past four years, with 45 drop-off signs in 26 wards.
"This year, for the first time, we are done in Beverly, and we had to switch out their bins in like the first week of the campaign because people were ready," Skalko said.
They're also partnering with Waste Not Composting, which will collect trees curbside from their existing composting customers and now from the general public for a $40 fee.
"I think it's a really common misconception that food and organic material compost in a landfill," said Tommy Vaughan,growth manager of Waste Not Composting. "What happens when an organic material get sent to a landfill is it gets basically in tuned with all the other ways that we have. No oxygen can get in to help break down the material, and that ends up releasing a significant amount of methane."
People were already adding unwanted trees to the pile at Portage Park on the Northwest Side, and an even larger collection at Clark Park, a couple of the city's 27 free drop-off locations.
Both the city and Waste Not ask that if you're donating, clear all the tinsel and trimmings before you do.
"What we really don't want is them to be in plastic bags because then that gets caught up in the machinery," Skalko said.
Although people were dropping off trees already, the city said its program doesn't start until Saturday.
As for holiday light collections, that doesn't don't end with the holidays. More collection dates can be found on Reduce Waste Chicago's website.