McHenry Community High School’s Environmental Club is collecting old holiday lights for recycling in an effort to keep waste from broken light strings out of soil and water.
Club members kicked off their first Holiday Light Recycling Drive on Dec. 1 with Warrior Waste Showdown to challenge students to properly separate garbage to recycling, compost or trash bins.
For the Holiday Light Drive, bins will be out at Upper Campus at the South Entrance and Room 372 to collect old lights until Dec. 15. Collected lights will then be dropped off with the City of McHenry’s holiday light recycling program.
Environmental Club advisor Kaley Freund said the club wanted to do a recycling event this year. She thought others might be interested in recycling holiday lights since it can be a challenge to find a recycling program. Many families may have recently opened their own decoration boxes and found holiday lights that aren’t working.
“It's important to properly dispose of electronic waste because they can release a lot of toxins into the environment such as arsenic and lead,” said Freund, a MCHS science teacher.
