On LED holiday lights | By Umbra Fisk | Grist | Ask Umbra

On LED holiday lights

07 Dec 2005

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

Suppose I replace all my many old, tangled, not-so-efficient holiday lights with the newer LED lights. These are supposed to be better for the environment. What is the best way to dispose of my old lights?

R-M
Ottawa, Canada

Ask Umbra continues below

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Dearest R-M,

The LED lights are indeed better for the environment, and, since I'm frankly running out of winter holiday-related questions (see my previous work on Christmas trees, gift wrap, candles, consumption, leftovers, and snow removal), I'm going to dwell on just how much better they are.

Glow forth and multiply.

Photo: iStockphoto.

A lot better, people. We all know by now how completely inefficient the incandescent lightbulbs in our house are, how they have a pathetic filament, produce light via lifespan-shortening heat, and cost quite a bit more over time than our fabulous compact fluorescent bulbs. Holiday light strands are made up of tiny incandescent bulbs. It should come as no surprise, then, that they too are expensive -- aka electricity sucking, aka an eco-dilemma.

Luckily, alternatives are now readily available in the form of light-emitting diodes. LED lights are costlier up front, to be sure, but look at the savings cited by my exemplary city: "The comparative cost for a season of holiday lighting (based on 10 strings of lights burning eight hours a day for 30 days at Seattle City Light's second block residential rate of $0.0853 cents per kilowatt-hour) is $127.67 for large lights, $7.20 for mini lights, and $0.72 for the new LED lights."

Say no more! Your holiday celebration need not require a new nuclear plant! Go with LED. Ecological, safer, cutting edge. If you can't get LED nearby, please purchase mini-lights over the traditional-size holiday bulbs. (Another idea is to use solar-powered lights or snowpeople. Search freely on the internet for these; I dare not recommend a vendor.) If you feel super-pumped on holiday lighting, there's much, much more to read on the topic, including safety and conservation tips.

As for disposal, unless you live in a city with an exchange program that swaps LEDs for incandescents -- hooray, Oakland and Toronto! -- the trash may beckon. Incandescent bulbs are not usually accepted by recyclers, but call your local recycling center just to check. I suppose you could donate your lights to the needy, but as we've seen above, you will only be fattening the needy's electricity bill. The good news is, your new LED lights will last longer and each bulb is easy to replace, so the trash-reducing future is -- of course -- bright.

Kwanzaaly,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (5 comments)

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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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