St. Louis Green, in partnership with Walmart, is once again working to collect unwanted holiday lights. With over 400 collection sites, the partnership hopes to continue building off of last year’s success. According to St. Louis Green founder, Craig Jung, “Our goal this year is 136,000 pounds of lights diverted from local landfills.” Once collected, the lights will be recycled and sent back to manufacturers to be used in new products. A portion of the drive proceeds will go to Operation Food Search, a St. Louis area food bank.
The 2013 drive will be returning to Springfield, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, and the Metro East area of Illinois and this year expanding to Branson. The collection sites, including over 75 participating Walmart locations, can be found at www.stlouisgreen.com. Lights can be dropped off at the Walmart locations through December 29th, and all other locations through January 12th.
Last year, the drive received two statewide awards. The Missouri Recycling Association honored both St. Louis Green and Walmart with its Outstanding Collection Program award. In addition, the Missouri Waste Control Coalition gave the retailer and non-profit organization its Outstanding Achievement award for Environmental Stewardship.
St. Louis Green, Inc., was founded to address a need in the St. Louis community for information about green businesses, green products, and green events. Founder and Executive Director, Craig Jung, noticed that people were looking for information and education about sustainable lifestyles. In 2007, he created StLouisGreen.com, a resource for everything green in the St. Louis region. The mission of the 501(c)3 non-profit organization is to empower others to learn about and implement sustainable lifestyles. This is accomplished through programs that educate, support, and empower citizens and businesses of the St. Louis area to make changes in their daily living toward a greener, more sustainable world.
For information visit www.stlouisgreen.com.