St. Louis Green 2012 Holiday Light Recycling Drive

Non-profit aims to recycle 128,000 pounds of unwanted holiday lights

November 28, 2012 – St. Louis, MO – St. Louis Green, in partnership with Walmart, is once again working to collect unwanted holiday lights. With over 500 collection sites, the partnership hopes to double last year’s success. According to St. Louis Green founder, Craig Jung, “Our goal this year is 128,000 pounds, that’s four tractor trailer loads diverted from landfills.” Once collected, the lights will be recycled and sent back to manufacturers to be used in new products. A portion of the drive proceeds will go to Operation Food Search, a St. Louis area food bank.

This year, the drive has expanded to include Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, and the Metro East area of Illinois. The collection sites, including the 98 participating Walmart locations, can be found at http://stlouisgreen.com. Lights can be dropped off at the Walmart locations through December 30th, and all other locations through January 13th.

Earlier this year, the drive received two statewide awards. The Missouri Recycling Association honored both St. Louis Green and Walmart with its Outstanding Collection Program award. In addition, the Missouri Waste Control Coalition gave the retailer and non-profit organization its Outstanding Achievement award for Environmental Stewardship.

St. Louis Green, Inc., was founded to address a need in the St. Louis community for information about green businesses, green products, and green events. Founder and Executive Director, Craig Jung, noticed that people were looking for information and education about sustainable lifestyles. In 2007, he created StLouisGreen.com, a resource for everything green in the St. Louis region. The mission of the 501(c)3 non-profit organization is to empower others to learn about and implement sustainable lifestyles. This is accomplished through programs that educate, support, and empower citizens and businesses of the St. Louis area to make changes in their daily living toward a greener, more sustainable world.  PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

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St. Louis Green’s Erin McAllister was interviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier this week to discuss the Holiday Light Recycling Drive.

“Getting the fifth bulb – isn’t it always red? – on the second string of holiday lights to shine can be enlightening. Forgetting to check before winding them around the tree can double the frustration.

“Holidays are sort of the season of ‘stuff’ and we are trying to get the whole community involved in ridding your life of that ‘stuff’ while recycling at the same time,” said Erin McAllister of St. Louis Green.

The 2012 Holiday Light Recycling Drive hopes to gather 128,000 pounds of lights, almost twice the amount collected last year. A local processor crushes the material and separates plastic and glass from the lights.

“The copper wiring is the most valuable part. It is sent back to manufacturers and made into new things,” she said. The recycler processes lights at a rate of 25,000 pounds of metal in an hour, a wondrous culminating feat to finalize an effort weeks in the gathering.

“The recycling doesn’t just reduce the impact on our landfills, but it tugs the heartstrings. A portion of the proceeds helps feed the hungry during the holidays through Operation Food Search,” McAllister added.”

Read the entire article here. 

Hello, friends!  As the holiday season kicks off, we encourage you to participate in our Holiday Light Recycling Drive!

Big thanks to the following news outlets for covering the Drive!

Creve Coeur Patch

 Clayton-Richmond Heights Patch

Ladue-Frontenac Patch

Kirkwood Patch

University City Patch

Webster Groves Patch

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Sperreng students)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Whole Foods)

OzarksFirst.Biz

City of Creve Coeur

University City 

Event to Celebrate America Recycles Day

 What:  See several mascots such as Rampage from the St. Louis Rams and Louie from the St. Louis Blues as they participate in a 15-minute “race” through Walmart to find as many recycled-content and green products on their shopping list as they can. The top three winning mascots with the most items in their shopping cart at the end of the race will receive Walmart gift cards to the charities of their choice in the amounts of $500, $250 and $100 respectively. The public is invited to attend.

This event is part of America Recycles Day on November 15, the nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States.

When: Thursday, November 15, 2012, 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

Where: Walmart, 1202 South Kirkwood Road, Kirkwood, MO 63122

Why: Recycling is a multi-billion dollar industry that employs millions of Americans and is good for the environment. If each household in Saint Louis County alone were to recycle just one extra aluminum can, it would prevent 77 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. Nationally, the value lost by discarding packaging rather than recycling it is estimated to be $11.4 billion.

 Who: St. Louis Green Inc. and Walmart are sponsoring this event in partnership with the Saint Louis County Department of Health. In addition to the mascots, also participating in the event will be Kirkwood Mayor Art McDonnell, St. Louis Green Inc. Executive Director Craig Jung, and Walmart Market Manager Robin Toretta.

St. Louis Green Executive Director Craig Jung joined Emily Andrews of the U.S. Green Building Council and Jean Ponzi of the Earthways Center to discuss the progress made in the St. Louis area in making the region more sustainable on “On the Air” with Don Marsh on St. Louis Public Radio.

Listen to the broadcast here!

Craig accepts the MORA award with Robin Torretta and Darren Carithers of Wal-Mart

Earlier this week, the  Missouri Recycling Association presented St. Louis Green and Wal-Mart with the award for “Outstanding Collection Program” for our Holiday Light Recycling Drive.  In 2011, we collected over 64,000 pounds of holiday lights.  The recycling process uses granulation to separates the glass, plastic and cooper.  We  then is send the materials back to manufacturers to be put into new products.

We were thrilled to receive this award, and look forward to launching the 2012 Holiday Light Recycling Drive here in a few short weeks. This year, our program will expand across the state to Kansas City, and we plan to pick up lights from over 400 designated collection points!  If you are interested in collecting holiday lights this year, give us a call at 314-222-8004, or email us at info@stlouisgreen.com.

Press release written by Vector Communications:

ST.LOUIS, Mo., June 28, 2012 - Walmart and St. Louis Green, Inc. have received the Missouri Waste Control Coalition’s (MWCC) outstanding achievement award in environmental stewardship. MWCC officials made the presentation at its annual statewide conference last week at Lake of the Ozarks. (Photo available at http://budurl.com/WalEnvironment) The award was given for improving waste management practices and the wise use of natural resources. In 2009, Walmart and St. Louis Green, Inc., which empowers people to lead sustainable lifestyles, started the Holiday Light Recycling Drive, a campaign that encourages people to recycle their old non-working holiday lights and instead purchase LED lights, which are much more energy efficient. This year alone, 62,000 pounds of lights were collected and recycled – enough to fill two semi trucks.

“At Walmart, being a good steward of the environment is one of our most important business imperatives,” says Glenda Fleming Willis, regional general manager for Walmart. “However, without the support of our customers, our associates and the communities we serve, this award would not have been possible.”

During the first year of the Holiday Light Recycling Drive,” 15 Walmart stores participated and St. Louis Green, Inc. collected 6,000 pounds of lights. Since then, the drive has expanded to 60 Walmart stores from St. Louis to Springfield, Missouri, along with more than 200 other participating companies, schools and municipalities. Additionally, some of the proceeds St. Louis Green, Inc. raised this year from recycling the lights went to purchasing nearly 4,000 cans of tuna for Operation Food Search’s Backpack program for elementary schoolchildren.

MWCC is a 400-member coalition of citizens and businesses throughout the state concerned with the disposal of generated wastes. Its annual environmental conference, which started in 1972, is one of the oldest environmental conferences in the nation.

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Please Join us at the four CBL malls from Nov. 19th to Dec. 10th to giveaway mall coupons and flyers regarding the Holiday Light Drive. To volunteer please contact cindy@stlouisgreen.com Also, don’t forget the Holiday Light Drive at 58 Walmart Stores-Statewide, which will continue from Nov 19 and ends December 4th. The drive for remainder locations ends January 31,2012. See locations