Is it worth salvaging wiring from dead holiday lights? I assume the wiring is copper … and it’s obviously not about making money, since holiday lights are so small, but it’s a resource I’d like to recycle. Is it worth it? Or is it too small to be valuable to anyone?

Best Answer

Yes, the wire inside is copper. We are friends with a man who runs a metal recycling yard. I took my dead ones over there.

He has a special machine you run the wire through. It cuts the plastic, and stripps it off, leaving shiney cooper wire. Very fast, pretty cool to watch.

I took back some of the wire, to make nice copper wire Christmas ornament hangers. The rest we got a couple of bucks for recycling.

If you have a metal recycler near you, then yes, it%26#039;s worth it...take your soda cans in too. Stainless steel (like sinks and such) , copper, and aluminum will all give you some extra money in your pocket.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Asker's Rating:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, but thank you for the example of what you do - going to track down a local metal yard and see if they want them. I appreciate the confirm that is it indeed copper

Other Answers (4)

• that is lyke things i lik eto do
• i got 20 cents per pound of old xmas lights i took out of the bushes at this house last summer. you decide if its worth it. i took it to a copper recycler. recycle copper material
• I%26#039;d say check out Kirschbaum Krupp. They will pay for the wires. Check out their web site:
  
  www.kirschbaumkrupp.com
• A junk man would burn the insulation off to recover the copper. Whether the benefits of saving the copper are worth the toxic fumes that the insulation will throw off is debatable.