Recycle holiday lights at WUSTL

Keep lights out of landfills, help feed the hungry in St. Louis

This holiday season, the WUSTL community can bring burned out or unwanted light strings to campus to be recycled.

WUSTL’s Office of Sustainability is partnering with StLouisGreen.com and Operation Food Search on the initiative, which runs Nov. 21-Jan. 17 at the School of Medicine and Nov. 16-Jan. 31 at all other WUSTL campuses.

All materials collected will be 100 percent recycled. Proceeds from this program will be donated to Operation Food Search.

Donation boxes will be located at four WUSTL campuses:

Danforth Campus

  • Gregg House, Student Technology Services
  • South 40 House, main dining hall entrance
  • Danforth University Center, Event Services, third floor
  • Alumni House

Medical Campus

  • McDonnell Pediatric Research Building lobby
  • 4444 Forest Park lobby
  • 4480 Clayton lobby
  • CSRB/BJCIH link
  • FLTC lobby
  • McDonnell Sciences Building, seashell lobby
  • Clayton Garage

North Campus

  • Northern Bites Café
  • Quadrangle Housing Office

West Campus

  • Entrance from garage to Floor 2

Last year, the WUSTL community collected more than 1,300 pounds of new, used and burnt-out lights, keeping them from landfills and helping to feed the hungry of St. Louis.

LED holiday lights

To further green the holiday season, the Office of Sustainability asks the WUSTL community to consider buying LED (light-emitting diode) holiday lights instead of incandescent lights. Benefits include:

  • LED holiday lights use up to 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light.
  • LED lights can last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
  • LED lights are more durable than incandescent bulbs.
  • LED lights reduce fire risk. Incandescent holiday lights transform only about 5 percent of the power that they use into light, while the rest is emitted as heat.
  • Colored incandescent holiday lights are the least efficient, with as little as 1 percent of the energy being converted to light.

For more information about the holiday lights recycling drive, contact Daniel Bentle at dbentle@wustl.edu or visit stlouisgreen.com/Holiday-Light-Recycling-Drive.