As Halloween ends, you’re left with all your decorations. Americans spend an estimated $4.2 billion on Halloween decorations every year, and that threatens to become a lot of waste when the festivities end.
Don’t let your animatronic and light-up Halloween items end up in the landfill. You’ve spent the money, so make sure that you’re getting the longest possible life from your Halloween props and recycling or donating them when you’re done with them.
A Step-by-Step Halloween Electronics Recycling Guide
We compiled a step-by-step guide to recycling Halloween electronics. Following these steps helps ensure nothing accidentally ends up in a garbage truck or waste facility, where a battery could spark a devastating fire or metals and chemicals could wreak havoc on the environment.
Dry Them Out
If it rained and things are still damp or even soaked, let them dry out before you store them. You don’t want to pull them out next year and discover they’re covered in mold. Dry items are easier to sort and recycle.
Assess Your Halloween Decorations
Before you dismantle your Halloween displays, plug them in and assess their condition. Note any lights that aren’t working, speakers that are crackling, and wiring that is frayed. As you assess each item, categorize them as:
- Damaged/Recycle: An animatronic witch who no longer moves is ready for recycling.
- Damaged/Repair: A string of lights with one dead bulb can be repaired easily enough. Set them aside and fix them when you have the time. Once they’re fixed, they can go into the “Working” bin.
- Working: Items that are working perfectly can go into a mouse-proof container for next year.
Remove and Separate Batteries and Cords
For any items that use batteries, remove them, if possible. If you plan to reuse the decoration next year, you prevent battery acid from leaking out and destroying the terminals. If it’s a rechargeable decoration, you may not be able to remove the battery. Charge it and keep it in a warm room. Don’t let a rechargeable battery sit in freezing temperatures.
Remove any cords that aren’t permanently wired to the motor. Set those cords aside for recycling. Depending on your facility’s rules, you may need to take them to a scrap metal recycler.
Recycle Batteries Separately
Place a small piece of electrical tape over both ends of the battery. Place the batteries in a small box or freezer bag to take to a battery recycling drop box. Many hardware stores offer battery recycling at the entrance.
Before you throw all the batteries into one container, make sure your recycling program allows mixed types. Some may need you to separate alkaline from lithium-ion.
Check Your Local Recycling Rules
You have a bag of broken or damaged Halloween electronics. Pull up your local recycling facility’s rules and see how you are supposed to recycle them. You might need to break this down by categories like batteries, electric cords, lights, or motorized devices.
Once you know what’s accepted and what isn’t, read the rules for recycling each item. For example, my local recycling center wants all electronic cables and items with motors or heaters in the scrap metal recycling dumpster. Light strings also go into scrap metal. Rechargeable toys and figurines go into battery recycling.
If you know the manufacturer, see if they offer a takeback program. If you can send items back to them for refurbishing and secondary-market sales, take advantage of it.
It’s unlikely anything you need to recycle will go into your curbside recycling container. You need to note addresses and hours for the places that accept electronics and battery recycling.
Repurpose as Much as You Can
Try to repurpose anything you can before you send it to recycling or a landfill. The solar-powered pumpkin lights you bought with two dead pumpkins could be reused as patio lighting in the summer. They’d make great lighting for a dark shed.
Donate Working Halloween Electronics
Before recycling anything that remains, see if someone else would like it. You might not feel up to replacing the blower on an inflatable ghoul, but someone else might love projects like that.
Theater groups might welcome decorations for their stage sets. While a non-working zombie may seem useless to you, it’s a great zombie figure to set against a backdrop.
Always donate as much as you can before sending anything else to the landfill or recycling center. The more you donate, the less waste and recycling you have to bring to the proper facility.
Recycle Animated Displays and E-Waste
You’ve repurposed some of your Halloween decorations and given away others. The broken items remain. It’s time to break them down for recycling.
- Cardboard: Anything made of cardboard, whether it’s a form for shaping a head or body or a base, is easily recycled in your curbside bin, provided it didn’t get wet. Make sure it’s cut to the specified dimensions requested by your area recycling facility.
- Circuit Boards, Motors, and Wiring: Send motors, wires, and circuit boards to electronics recycling streams to break them down and recover materials like copper, gold, and silver.
- Fabrics and Textiles: Remove clothing, fabrics, and other textiles for textile recycling. If you don’t have textile recycling in your area, save the scraps. Quilters may be happy to take them off your hands and turn them into quilting squares.
- Metal: Metal frames are recycled as scrap metal.
- Plastic: Depending on the type of plastic, you may be able to recycle plastic components. It’s not guaranteed, so look for the recycling symbol to identify the plastic type, then check your local recycling facility.
- Wood: Any wooden supports can be recycled as construction materials. If the pieces are in good shape, you might be able to use them around your home for projects like bird feeders or rustic shelving.
Support a Circular Economy
Recycling Halloween electronics is more than just clean-up after another festive night. It’s an active contribution to the circular economy.
E-waste contains valuable raw materials, including aluminum, copper, gold, rare earth elements, silver, and steel. Keep them out of the landfill, where they can potentially leach heavy metals like cadmium and lead into the ground.
Instead, use them for as long as possible, then have them processed to extract valuable materials for reuse.
By taking a few extra minutes to remove batteries, tape terminals, separate materials, and ensure the different components go to the correct processing streams, you conserve natural resources, reduce environmental damage, and keep Halloween an eco-friendly, fun, spooky event year after year.
