Western South Dakota News

Public can drop off ‘tanglers’

at 17 locations

RAPID CITY, SD—We’ve all been there!

            You lug out the box of holiday lights from the attic, garage or crawl space.  You work tirelessly to unravel the strings, place them end-to-end on the floor and connect them.  You plug them into the outlet only to find one string doesn't work. 

            Or worse yet, you're on the ladder and you've carefully connect those strings of icicle lights and you plug them in only to find one string isn't working. You try the replacement bulbs, you push in all the tiny bulbs and they still don't work.

            So what do you do with those non-working strings of lights?

            The City's Solid Waste Division is again encouraging the public to recycle non-working lights by dropping them off into one of several collection boxes that are placed at 17 Rapid City locations.  Officials strongly advise residents to not put the lights in the blue recycling bins or trash containers.

            "As we decorate for the holiday season, many of us encounter those non-working strings of lights,” said Ria Hannon, City Solid Waste Division outreach coordinator.

            "We don't want homeowners to put the lights into the curbside recycling containers because the light strings are what we call 'tanglers'. When they get into the recycling line at the Landfill, they can get twisted up in the machinery causing backups and delays.”

            The public turned in a whopping 4,976 pounds of non-working lights last holiday season, surpassing the impressive 3,240 pounds of non-working lights turned in during the 2020-21 holiday season.

            Hannon said the public can also turn in strings of non-working lights that may have been set aside this year from other holiday observances.

            The Christmas Light Recycling containers are available at the following locations:

            *Ace Hardware (2): 1602 E. St. Patrick Street and 1724 W. Main Street

            *Western Dakota Tech: 800 Mickelson Drive

            *Boyd's Drug Stores (2): Baken Park (entrance to Boyd's Liquor) and at 909 E. St. Patrick Street

            *Rapid City Public Library, 610 Quincy Street

            *City Hall: 300 Sixth Street

            *Runnings, 1020 N. Lacrosse Street

            *Fleet Farm, 1001 E. Mall Drive

            *Education Center at Landfill: 5165 S. Highway 79

            *Rapid City Restore: 610 E. Omaha Street

            *RC Hardware: 770 Mountain View Road

            *Roosevelt Swim Center: 125 Waterloo Street

            *Menards: 710 N. Creek Drive

            *Granite Buick GMC: 2454 E. Mall Drive

            *Granite Nissan: 2626 E. Mall Drive

            *Carstar Collision Center: 415 E. Omaha Street

            The bins will be located at these locations until January 31.

Original source can be found here.