Ilalko’s Green Team launched its first holiday lights recycling drive during the 2009 holidays. The team collected broken and unusable lights strands at more than 100 drop-off locations throughout Auburn and neighboring cities.

In eight weeks, the Green Team collected more than 2,900 pounds of lights, which might have otherwise turned up in a landfill. The light strands were delivered to a local metal recycling center where a breakdown process reclaimed metal within the strands.

All $2,032.80 earned from the recycling center will benefit the Ilalko Library Fund to purchase books for the library and other recycling initiatives at Ilalko such as milk carton recycling and future projects like composting.

With the recent implementation of a comprehensive Resource Conservation program, Auburn School District is placing renewed emphasis on recycling and other forms of environmental stewardship, such as the wise use of electricity, natural gas and water. In the past year, Auburn School District’s operations and maintenance department has reduced the ongoing costs associated with solid waste by over $50,000 through increased recycling, composting and careful planning of service.