Amnesty program promotes energy efficient LEDs

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - This holiday season, BC Hydro is launching an "amnesty" for incandescent Christmas lights to encourage British Columbians to use energy efficient LED Christmas lights and reduce overall electricity consumption.

"British Columbians can make a difference this Christmas season by replacing their incandescent Christmas lights with LED lights which use less electricity and will help customers save money," said Lisa Coltart, BC Hydro's manager of Power Smart. "That's why BC Hydro is granting amnesty to incandescent lights this year. We are encouraging customers to bring in and recycle their old light strings and replace them with energy efficient holiday lighting." BC Hydro and Waste Management Inc. have partnered this year to provide incandescent light string recycling at two Lower Mainland locations.

"The glass, metal and plastic components of a light string can all be separated and recycled. This program will keep all these valuable and reusable resources out of the landfill," said Peter Brodsky, Waste Management's communications manager for Western Canada.

For each string of incandescent lights brought to the Burrard location for recycling, BC Hydro will donate five dollars to the BC Chapter of the Canadian Association of Food Banks. This money will go towards providing food for British Columbians in need throughout the province.

BC Hydro launched the amnesty program with an interactive light display at the Burrard Courtyard at Burrard and Dunsmuir. The courtyard has been decorated with LED light strings to demonstrate how one tree lit with incandescent strings of lights uses the same electricity as several trees lit with energy efficient LED strings. 75 incandescent Christmas bulbs consume the same amount of electricity as 9,240 LED bulbs.

The light drive and installation will run at the Burrard location from Tuesday, December 4 from 7-9a.m. and from 4-9p.m. and then from 3-9p.m. until Saturday, December 8.

Surrey City Hall will host light recycling on December 12 from 6-9 p.m.