Recycling a good solution for extra paper and cardboard
Leftovers are going in the fridge, students are heading back to school, cable- movie marathons are wrapping up and decorations are coming down. It's the end of another holiday season. And like every other one before it, one question remains - what to do about all the wrapping paper, all the new ( and empty) boxes and all of the plastic. And then there's the tree ( if your family has one).
Bill Thomas, a supervisor at the public works department, has been helping people with these questions for at least 20 years, three as a supervisor.
So what's the best way to manage all the excess wrapping paper?
According to Thomas, it's recyclable.
"The best way to [ manage wrapping paper] is to put it in a brown paper bag," Thomas said. "We can take that and throw that right in our recycling truck."
But not every wrapping material
can be recycled.
Rachel Barber, a member of the Waste Minimization Committee, noted that while the paper itself can be recycled, not everything underneath can be.
"Wrapping materials that are made of plastic or that are foiled, or that have some kind of flocking on them, they can't be recycled," Barber said.
To be sure it was only paper, over the weekend Barber tried to remind residents not to throw other
materials into the recycling bin, including oil paper, plastic wrapping paper, bows or ribbons."
Boxes can also be recycled, and Thomas and his team drove around Monday following a recycling truck with another truck of their own.
Besides the additional truck, Thomas said a lot of people - eager to get rid of unnecessary waste - have stopped by the public works
department. But remember to remove any styrofoam packing material or plastic packaging before leaving them on the curb or dropping them off at the 24/ 7 recycling center ( located at 110 E. Harrison St).
"That's one of the biggest mistakes that [ people] are doing is with styrofoam," Thomas said. "They think it's recyclable, and we're writing on our cards… ' styrofoam is not recyclable,' and put it on a card and leave it in their bin and tell them not to do it."
Certain types of plastic wrapping and shipping items can also be recycled at the 24/ 7 site, including flexible plastic ( the liners of cereal boxes or cracker boxes or the plastic bags available at grocery stores used to put vegetables and fruit in), clear plastic pillows and bubble plastic. Just don't leave them for the curbside recycling trucks.
Christmas trees can be left by the curb for disposal provided they're just the trees.
"You have to make sure that the tinsel is off the tree, the ornaments are off the tree, and it's just a tree," Barber said. "Then they'll take it off to the city farm, and… will be able to compost it."
And remember, don't throw glass into the curbside containers.
"That's got to be trashed, or they can bring it down to the street department, sort it in the glass ones," Thomas said. "You can't co- mingle glass with our aluminum, plastic and tin."
A helpful trick to remember according to Barber is that like recycles with like.
"That's why now, even with our two- stream system, the cardboard, the paper, the paperboard are separated out from the plastic, the aluminum foil, the aluminum pans and things like that," Barber added, reminding residents that numbers one and two plastic are the only plastics that can be recycled curbside in Wapakoneta.