If you have a few strands of Christmas lights that saw their last hoorah this holiday season but don’t know what to do with them, the Hattiesburg Zoo is offering a perfect opportunity to rid of those bad bulbs.
From now until Jan. 14, the zoo is accepting old Christmas lights – partially working or not – that they will then recycle. Any money made from the old lights will go to animal care.
“You can just come and drop off your lights at the front office at the zoo and the gift shop. We will take all your Christmas lights. We want them all,” Hattiesburg Zoo director of education, conservation, and wildlife Jeremy Compton said on Good Things with Rebecca Turner. “Of course, we’ll do our best to support conservation, sustainability, and while not every part of the Christmas lights can be recycled, at least of portion of them can be.”
The Hattiesburg Zoo will be accepting donations Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Jan. 14. Compton added that even if you don’t live in the Pine Belt, there’s surely a place near you that will recycle off your old lights and save them from a local landfill.
“If you do not want to drive all the way to Hattiesburg, which I understand, I’m sure you can have a facility somewhere wherever you might be in Mississippi that will allow you to bring your Christmas lights in to recycle them,” Compton continued. “If they go to a landfill, they are going to sit there, they are going to take up space, and it is nothing that is good for the environment.”
To learn more about the Hattiesburg Zoo’s Christmas light recycling drive, click here, and to find a recycling plant near you, click here.
