Americans produce 25% more garbage from Thanksgiving through the end of the year. That translates to over one million tons of extra trash per week through to the holidays. December is the unofficial trash season as the holidays mean more sent to recycling and to the landfill with one message from sanitation: Get it right. “We’ve even created a naughty and nice list this holiday season,” said Michael Garland, Environmental Service director for Monroe County. Garland says it is important to focus on not only what goes in curbside recycling, but what cannot go in that blue bin.
“Christmas lights, Styrofoam plastic bags, plastic film, shipping envelopes, cooking oil,” said Garland. Masks also belong in the trash bin. One of the biggest items on the naughty list is the plastic bag. Any thin plastic can likely be recycled at the grocery store and can cause major problems in the recycling center by jamming up the systems.
Most harder plastics can be recycled and paper is high on the list of recyclable items. “There’s a lot more shopping online happening with a lot of folks at home. So, it’s generating a lot more cardboard, and we’d like that card board flattened,” said Garland. Most wrapping paper that is not metallic can be recycled, but again do not put it into the plastic bag. Try recycling it by putting it in a cardboard box and sending that to the street.