Recycle broken Christmas Lights and live Christmas Trees

Toledo, OH, January 2, 2025: With Christmas now behind us, many people are beginning to take down their Christmas lights. If your holiday came with a Clark Griswold moment, with little lights that weren’t twinkling, an easy option is being offered to recycle those broken lights instead of throwing them away.

AIMECycling of Toledo has partnered with Genoa Bank for its third year to offer a simple way to keep your old Christmas lights out of the landfills for an ecofriendly option to discard them.  Now through January 13^th, you can drop off your old broken Christmas lights at most Genoa Bank branch locations during lobby business hours.

“Christmas lights are just one of those things that people often overlook as being recyclable but it’s really important to utilize this option” said Brian Simmons from AIMEcycling.  “Christmas lights are made from several non-biodegradable components, mostly plastic, glass, and copper. They take decades, if not hundreds of years to break down if sent to a landfill.”

Christmas light bulbs can also contain toxic metals such as mercury that can be released into the environment when the bulbs are broken. With Christmas lights often only lasting a few seasons, the waste generated by any given household adds up quickly. Over the last two years 5,643 pounds, nearly 3 tons, of lights have been collected and recycled with this initiative.

In addition to helping the environment by recycling your lights, AIM has committed to making a  donation to Nature’s Nursery Center For Wildlife Rescue of up to 20 cents  per pound collected to assist in their efforts toward environmental and habitat sustainability.

Lights can be dropped off at all Genoa Bank branch locations except for downtown Toledo. Look for the large drop off box in the lobby.

Participating Branches: