Norwegians are known for lighting lots of candles when the days grow shorter and darkness settles in. Now Norsk Hydro, one of Norway’s biggest firms, is spearheading a campaign to recycle the little aluminum containers holding the popular candles known as telys (tea lights).
“The light from a telys that weighs five grams corresponds to the amount of energy used by a 40-watt lightbulb for two hours,” Hydro chief executive Svein Richard Brandtzæg told Aftenposten recently. “It’s therefore worth the effort to get this back in the value chain.”
Hydro makes the telys holders used by Swedish retailer Ikea in its production of the candles in the Baltic. Hydro, Ikea and environmental organization WWF are launching a school campaign to get folks to recycle them. Fourth-grade classes are being challenged to collect as many telys holders as possible, with the winning class getting a trip to Hydro’s aluminum recycling plant at Holmestrand.
Consumers are also being encouraged to recycle used telys, which can be thrown into the same containers used for glass and metal.
Views and News staff
