Give your broken Christmas lights a chance to shine again in aid of the Simon Community

   Mon, 25th Nov, 2024

What do you do when you realise that your Christmas lights don’t twinkle anymore? Are they shoved back into the attic to be dealt with next year? Like all e-waste, Christmas lights can have a chance to shine again if they are recycled.  Once again, KMK Metals Recycling is calling on members of the public to support its annual Christmas lights recycling campaign by bringing their old and broken Christmas lights to shopping centres in Tullamore, Athlone and Mullingar. For every set of Christmas lights recycled, KMK Metals Recycling will make a donation to the Midlands Simon Community.

Since 2015, KMK Metals Recycling has been running a Christmas lights recycling campaign, starting out with just the Bridge Centre in Tullamore before expanding to include Harbour Place Shopping Centre in Mullingar and Golden Island Shopping Centre in Athlone.

Shoppers are encouraged to drop off any Christmas lights that cannot be repaired or reused and place them in custom made trolleys located in each shopping centre.

Max Kyck, Managing Director of KMK Metals Recycling, commented: “Our broken and discarded Christmas lights don’t look like much, and that’s why it can be so easy to let them clutter up our attics, or even throw them in the bin. However, you may not have realised that they are actually a rich source of valuable materials like copper. Copper is an extremely important metal that we use in almost all of our electronics due to its unique properties.  An interesting fact is that recycling copper uses about 85% less energy than mining virgin copper. While we will eventually run out of the copper in the ground, while causing a lot of damage to the planet through mining, we can recycle the copper we already have over and over again. So, when you recycle your Christmas lights, you are not only raising money for a great cause, you are also helping to protect the planet.”

Midlands Simon Community offers many services to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, to help get them back on their feet as quickly as possible. The charity offers services and support to people in the Midlands region of Offaly, Westmeath, Laois and Longford and aims to help users of the service to rebuild their lives and move out of homelessness into a permanent home.

A spokesperson for Midlands Simon Community explained why fundraising is vitally important for the charity, “The housing crisis and rental crisis is a huge area of concern for a lot of families and individuals throughout the midlands. Rents have gone through the roof due to high demand, leaving many people on low incomes facing the horrible reality of homelessness. As we get close to Christmas, think of those people who don’t have a home of their own or a Christmas tree to decorate. KMK Metals Recycling have come up with a  simple yet effective way to help Midlands Simon carry out our vital work, while also furthering their own aims to promote recycling and help the environment.”

The Christmas lights recycling trolleys will remain in place until the end of January. The public are asked not to put any packaging into the collection points.

KMK Metals Recycling will host a stand in the Bridge Centre in Tullamore on Sunday 1st of December with games, educational activities, face painting and spot prizes, to promote its Christmas lights recycling campaign in aid of the Simon Community. This free family event will take place between 12pm and 4pm. Each person who recycles their old and broken lights at the stand on the day will receive a gift and anyone who stops by will have the chance to win one of three €50 vouchers for Kellys Toymaster. 

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