Holiday disposal tips and tricks

Presents and decorations help make the season bright—but can leave a lot of waste in their wake. Try these tips to make sure your holiday twinkle doesn’t turn to environmental tarnish when the festivities are over.

Reuse your wrappings

You put a lot of time, effort, and money into wrapping up presents. Don’t let it go to waste! Turn your wrapping materials into gifts that keep on giving by reusing as much as possible. It’s a smart move for the environment—and for your wallet!

• Ribbon and bows: Save package toppers to pretty up presents again in the future. If you use neutral colors, they can be perfect for any occasion! These bits also come in handy for holiday crafts and decorations next year

• Wrapping paper: Don’t wad up wrapping paper once it’s off the box! Cut off any creased and wrinkled sections, then save the remaining paper to wrap smaller items next year. 

• Tissue paper: Tissue paper cannot be recycled, so reusing it is a smart move! Save it for wrapping ornaments and decorations for storage after the holiday. It also comes in handy for wrapping items when shipping packages.    

• Gift bags: Bags are sturdy enough to reuse many times over. Some families even make a tradition of exchanging the same bags year after year—a fun and festive way to get more use out of your wrapping! 

• Packaging: There’s lots of life left in product boxes and packing material (like peanuts, styrofoam, and bubble wrap). Save materials to use for mailing packages throughout the year 

• Cards: Transform old cards into next year’s gift tags! Cut the card front into smaller pieces so you can reuse the lovely design and save on buying new gift tags. Cards also make fun crafting materials! 

Sort out recyclables

A whirlwind of gift-opening can leave your living room strewn with debris. Before you break out the trash bags, take time to sort out recyclables so you can keep as much as possible out of the garbage. Look out for these common materials that can be recycled after the holiday season.

• Glass: Mason jars, wine bottles, candle jars (with all wax removed)

• Paper: Paper wrapping without glitter, plastic, or metallic foil—including wrapping paper, paper bows, and gift bags (with handles removed)

• Cardboard: Flattened cardboard boxes; if you have lots of cardboard, cut it into flat pieces less than 3' x 3' and stack it next to your cart at the curb

How to determine if paper is recyclable

Before you put paper in your recycling cart, check these two things:

• Embellishments: Check to see if there’s any glitter, plastic, or metallic foil on the paper. If so, it cannot be put into your recycling cart—reuse it if possible or place it in the garbage 

• The scrunch test: Not sure if your wrapping or packing paper is made of recyclable material? Use the scrunch test! Just squeeze the paper into a ball—if it stays scrunched into a ball, it’s recyclable

Avoid recycling contamination 

As you clean up after the holidays, be sure your recycling cart isn’t contaminated with nonrecyclable materials. Here’s some of the most common holiday waste to look out for—all these things must go in the garbage:

• Any paper (wrapping, gift bags, greeting cards, etc.) with glitter, plastic, or metallic foil

• Tissue paper

• Rigid plastic packaging

• Bubble wrap 

• Shrink wrap

• Styrofoam

• Packing peanuts

• String lights

• Plastic wreaths/decorations

Send your tree back to nature

Your Christmas tree is too large for the gray cart, but we can help you dispose of it easily for a small fee. You’ll need to remove all nonorganic material (including ornaments, lights, tinsel, hooks, and stands) and contact us to schedule a pickup.

PS—Did you know that pine needles can go into your compost? When clearing up dropped needles this season, put them in your yard debris cart instead of the trash can. Just be sure you don’t accidentally include any noncompostable material you may have inadvertently swept up when cleaning.