如何回收圣诞彩灯

如何回收圣诞彩灯

It doesn't feel right to put Christmas lights in a trash can. Maybe they've stopped working, or maybe you're replacing incandescent lights with safer, more energy-efficient LEDs. In any case, after brightening so many holiday seasons over the years, it can seem a little cold and unceremonious to just throw them away.

把圣诞彩灯放在垃圾桶里是不合适的。也许他们已经停止工作了，也许你正在用更安全、更节能的led灯取代白炽灯。不管怎么说，在这么多年的假日季节里，人们都过得很愉快，但把它们扔掉似乎有点冷漠和不礼貌。

There are several ways to recycle old Christmas lights that don't sparkle the way they once did. (Photo: Segapema/Shutterstock)

In fact, aside from the indignity, there are also more concrete reasons not to discard strands of Christmas lights with your garbage. Along with glass, plastic and copper that could be recycled, for example, they often contain small amounts of lead, a toxic metal used in some polyvinyl chloride (PVC) wire coatings to boost flexibility.

事实上，除了这些侮辱之外，还有一些更具体的理由不把圣诞彩灯和垃圾一起扔掉。例如，除了可回收的玻璃、塑料和铜之外，它们通常还含有少量的铅。铅是一种有毒金属，用于某些聚氯乙烯(PVC)电线涂料中，以增强其弹性。

Local authorities

当地政府

As a first step, you could check with your municipal solid-waste office or other local government authority, which might have the most up-to-date information about local options for recycling electronics. A solid-waste or recycling center might also be able to help; even if electronics aren't accepted by your local curbside recycling program, some facilities accept old Christmas lights if you're willing to bring them in.

作为第一步，你可以向市政固体废物办公室或其他地方政府机构查询，他们可能有关于当地电子产品回收选择的最新信息。固体废物或回收中心也可以提供帮助;即使你当地的路边回收项目不接受电子产品，如果你愿意把旧的圣诞灯带进来，一些设施也会接受。

Local businesses

当地企业

While the big box stores no longer recycle or exchange lights on a national level, individual stores often will, so ask. (Photo: Creative Family/Shutterstock)

It may also be worth calling nearby hardware and home-improvement stores to see if they accept Christmas lights for recycling. Ask about coupons or other incentives, too, since a few stores — including Home Depot, Lowe's and True Value — sometimes hold promotions to encourage swapping incandescents for LEDs.

也许还应该给附近的五金和家装商店打个电话，看看他们是否接受回收利用圣诞彩灯。问问优惠券或其他激励措施，因为一些商店——包括家得宝、劳氏和True Value——有时会举行促销活动，鼓励人们用白炽灯换led灯。

Online businesses

网上贸易

If it turns out personally delivering your lights for recycling would be too inconvenient or impractical, you may want to consider shipping them off to be recycled instead. Below are three U.S. companies that provide this service online, all of which offer discounts on new Christmas lights in exchange for your old ones.

如果亲自把你的灯送去回收太不方便或不切实际，你可能会考虑把它们送去回收。以下是三家提供这种在线服务的美国公司，所有这些公司都为你的旧圣诞灯提供折扣。

• Holiday LEDs: This Wisconsin company launched its Christmas lights recycling program in 2012. It accepts both incandescent and LED lights for recycling, a company representative tells MNN, and the program is open all year. It repays participants with a coupon for 15% off, while the lights go to a third-party recycling facility, which puts them into a commercial shredder. The pieces are processed and sorted into components like PVC, glass and copper, which are then separated and sent to a regional center for further processing.

节日led:这家威斯康星州的公司在2012年启动了圣诞灯回收项目。该公司的一名代表告诉MNN，它可以回收白炽灯和LED灯，而且该项目全年开放。它会以15%的折扣返还参与者，而这些灯则会被送到第三方回收机构，然后被放入商业碎纸机。这些碎片经过加工，分门别类为PVC、玻璃和铜等部件，然后将这些部件分离，送到一个区域中心进行进一步加工。

• Environmental LED: Based in Michigan, this company also specializes in LEDs and runs a recycling program for Christmas lights. Just pack up your old lights in an otherwise empty cardboard box — no bags, ties or other packing materials — and send them in to receive a coupon for 10% off new LEDs. The company takes your lights to its recycling center, where they're chopped into pieces and the cardboard shipping boxes are recycled. The pieces are then sorted into categories and recycled.

环保LED:该公司总部位于密歇根州，主要生产LED灯，并对圣诞灯进行回收利用。只要把你的旧灯装进一个空的纸板箱里——没有袋子、领带或其他包装材料——然后寄过去，就能得到新led灯打九折的优惠券。该公司把你的灯送到回收中心，在那里它们被切成小块，纸箱被回收。然后这些碎片被分类并回收利用。

• Christmas Light Source: "The thought of used Christmas lights being carted off to a landfill after bringing joy to so many passersby just didn't seem right to us," this Texas company says on its website, "but very few recycling centers had the capabilities of recycling the glass, copper and plastic from Christmas light sets." CLS finally found such a center near Dallas, though, and has run a recycling program since 2008. The recycling center pays a small fee per pound of lights, and the company then uses all proceeds to buy books and toys, which it donates to Toys for Tots every December. Participants get a coupon for 10% off new lights.

圣诞节光源：这个德克萨斯公司的"在给这么多的行人带来欢乐之后，人们想到了使用过的圣诞灯到了一个垃圾填埋场，这对我们来说似乎是不对的，"说：但很少有回收中心能够回收圣诞灯箱中的玻璃、铜和塑料。不过，CLS终于在达拉斯附近找到了这样一个中心，并重新运行了一次。自2008年以来的自行车计划，回收中心每磅电灯只需支付一小笔费用，然后公司就会用所有的收入购买书籍和玩具，每年12月都会把这些钱捐给玩具玩具公司(Toys For Tot)。工匠可以得到10%的新灯的优惠券。

Once you've parted ways with your old Christmas lights, you can help delay the demise of their replacements by opting for LEDs, which are more durable and longer-lasting than incandescent bulbs. Incandescents also release most of their energy as heat, which both wastes electricity and could create a fire hazard, especially if they're strung around a dried-out Christmas tree. LEDs, on the other hand, don't get hot or burn out, making them safer, more energy-efficient and lighter on the power bill.

一旦你放弃了旧的圣诞灯，你可以通过选择led灯来帮助延缓它们替代品的消亡，led灯比白炽灯泡更耐用，寿命更长。白炽灯也会以热的形式释放大部分能量，这不仅浪费电力，还可能引发火灾，尤其是当白炽灯被挂在一棵干枯的圣诞树上时。另一方面，led不会发热或烧坏，因此更安全、更节能、更省电。