Once again this year our district
will be participating in the Recycle Your Holidays program. The District
Service Center at 4540 Tower St. SE in Prior Lake is an official drop-off
location for your old and broken holiday light strands. You can drop off lights
in the lobby 8:00am - 4:00pm weekdays or send from any school in the district
via the in-district mail to the DSC.
The Recycling Association of
Minnesota (RAM), in partnership with the Clean Energy Resource Teams, started
this first-of-its-kind effort in the country back in 2009. This program employs
over 200 individuals with developmental disabilities at vocational centers
throughout the state of Minnesota. Every bulb of the light strand is dismantled
by vocational center clients and then properly recycled in Minnesota. Every
part of the strand is recycled, even the little lights are recycled by another
project partner, Green Lights Recycling.
Over the past three years, Recycle
Your Holidays™ has saved 4.27 million kWh with 460,000 pounds of lights
recycled because recycling is more efficient than creating new metal from
scratch. This amounts to a bit over $350,000 in avoided energy costs!
Do you have an idea for a recycling
drive for our district? Please contact the Energy Efficiency Coordinator, Sheri
Brunner via email or at extension 60051.