The week of the 4th of July, a local Realtor placed an American Flag on a stick in every yard on our street. That is 5 miles of homes with 2 sides of the street.
It looked great so most of us have left the flag out there. We are now on our 16th day of over 100 degree weather and the flags have really faded.
Do we need to burn all of them? They are like the nylon that plastic tablecloths are made of.
We have in the past given flags that needed to be burned to the local Boy Scout Troop, but I am not sure if that is what we should do with all of these flags. What do you all suggest? Thank you for your time.
FYI, The flags are on rather tall dowels and have not touched the ground.
I called the local VFW and they said they will be happy to take care of them for us.
Thank you all for your time.
You can turn in your faded flags at your local American Legion, they will be happy to take care of them and consider it an honor and are grateful for your consideration of Old Glory!
Our local fire department has a mailbox for old flags that is then collected by the American Legion.
Or a VFW post could do it, too.
This was VERY great idea!!!
There is actually no official ceremony for disposing of the American Flag. The Flag act requires that it be burned. I would recommend that if you were to build a small fire, gather/collect the flags and put them one at a time into the fire and wait until each flag is completely burned before putting the next flag in - you have met your moral and legal requirements for destroying the flag.
Personally - I would start it by saying the Pledge of Allegiance and let each person burn their flag.
I hope this helps you!
It depends on whether they are real flags or not. Lately, a lot of stores sell "American Banners" so that the flags do not have to be treated as true flags. I would call the realtor or the city and ask about the proper disposal of these flags. Good luck!
I would say that you could collect them and take them to your local American Legion. They will know whether they are supposed to be disposed of in a special way or not. I think the realtor had a great idea but personally, I always have a bit of a problem with displaying those little flags that way because they are touching the ground, which is not proper and they are not supposed to be displayed after sundown.
They do that in my neighborhood too, and I hate it. I think it treats the flag as a decoration - and it's disrepectful to leave those flags out with no provision for disposing of them.
