| I am from Israel, but i dont think the main concepts are much different in Europe or anywhere else
Go and talk to people
Start from the bottom up. The first station is the workers in the field, who drive the crane truck and replace the lights. I have had great success (resulting in many 10's of lanterns) with them on several occasions, and no-go and disappointment in other occasions
Sometimes you will have to convince them, and sometimes bribe them, either with alcohol or with cash.. But be gentle. Don't just wave it in their face. Invite them to talk, present yourself, etc. Do provide some sensible reason why you want the lanterns. Do provide answers that won't rise concerns for your safety (e.g. Will use the help of an electrician to connect it)
Depending on your age, your parents may have higher chances of being preceived as serious, although they may or may not know to push hard enough to get a result
I have ONE lantern which i got by buying it from the town's municipal depot. First i came to the depot, told them i a m interested in a lantern. I asked to see the most recently replaced ones (i wanted the specific one when it was removed), choose the lantern, and asked what is needed for me to get it. They looked up the price in their database and told me what to do. In my case this required going to the municipal offices, filling a form (standard purchase form - basically my name, name of item purchased, and price) and paying in cash at the same office that takes municipal tax payment. Then go back to the depot to take the lantern
Allthough your request may seem unusual, municipalities do buy and sell stuff all the time, including from/to private persons (like with contractors that do jobs for the municipality, resellers that buy and sell equipment, etc), so they generally do have a standard way of doing it. The exact procedure may vary between towns and between countries
From what i noticed, the one thing they do care about in regards to e-waste (this includes lanterns, computers, etc) is that if they get rid of something, they have a document that shows where it went (e.g. sold to a person _name_, transferred to a recycling facility _name_, etc). They don't care who _name_ is. They need it because if the environmental agency checks them, this is proof that they didn't throw this e-waste item into the "home" trash collection system
The municipalities may require the contractor to return all replaced lanterns to the depot, which is why he might not be able to give them to you. The municipalities reasons often come down to :
1. Proof that the lanterns didnt go to the "home" trash
2. The $ for the LED replacements often comes from specific funds (e.g. by some "green" organization, a government project, etc). They need proof that the funds were used for purpose and not stolen (whether as $ or as new lanterns). In the case of lantern replacements, the proof is the counting of the returned lanterns to the depot, and when they get rid of them, the matching paperwork, again with quantity
This is sometimes not working perfectly, as i both found lanterns in "home" trash cans in the street - right next to where they were replaced, and contractors who did give the lanterns to me for some $ (which means that they were not too concerned about what the depot will say about the missing lanterns)
The world is a small place. If you think of it, you may be just a few personal handshakes apart from any person who may have significant position in the system. Contractors, electricians, people in the municipality, etc
You probably know somebody(1), who knows somebody(2), [who knows somebody(3)], who knows a person that may have control over where lanterns go
Often just 2 or 3 people on the way
You may not know who it is. But no harm from asking. Depending on your age, somebody(1) may be your parents or school staff. The latter is quite likely, as schools work closely with municipalities and often school equipment is handled through the same depots that handle the lanterns. All you might need is just somebody to tell the depot guys, Hey, this kid is competent and is interested in something, could you get a talk with him ?
And once, i picked up a lantern that fell from the contractor's truck to the road while they were driving to the depot. They didn't even notice it falling
For private lanterns - The same - Go talk to people
You may not directly get lanterns right away, but you might ask to be notified if anything is replaced, or stuff kept for you
This have sometimes worked for me. Allthough many times the promise was forgotten or dismissed, i think even in those cases this still improves your chances if you see lanterns being replaced, and while asking again to get the lanterns. tell them that you already been there and asked and (if this is correct) they said ok
Be aware that to some people, if you want 1..2 lanterns it is plausible, but if you want a whole lot (or really, any quantity that they think is unreasonable for a single person to need, for whatever of their reasoning for themselves, especially if you are a kid), this may make them less interested. If you sense something like this, go easy on them, ask for what is sensible, and you may be able to extend your request as you start going with the reduced request first
Having a meaningful purpose may help. The purpose which i give is that i would like some lighting around the ranch, and give me the proper stuff not LEDs. In your case you may not have a ranch, and your family may live in the city and not have a ranch either, but you do have imagination. Keep it reasonable
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