What to do with all that Wrapping Paper??
Standard Christmas and other Holiday Wrapping Paper should be thrown in the trash cart. Many coatings and inks used in these papers make them non-recyclable and or too expensive to recycle.
---Try alternatives to expensive disposable wrapping papers that cannot be recycled:
Decorative boxes, gift bags, and tins can be reused.
Use paper bags, brown paper or newspaper to wrap
your gift and then use a reusable ribbon, bow, twine or natural sprig of evergreen to decorate it.
Other ideas:
Use old gourmet or home and garden magazines to wrap a gift for someone who likes to cook (or eat!) or garden. A traveler might like a gift that is wrapped in maps you no longer use. The Sunday comics wrapped around the gift gives great color and they’re fun to read. Wrap a sports fan’s gift in a sports magazine. A quilter would enjoy a gift
wrapped in a piece of fabric that you might have at home and never used. Wrap a child’s gift in a brown paper bag and add a small box of crayons for the little artist to create a brown bag masterpiece. Empty (or full) seed packets make a colorful gift tag. String, yarn, and even the one odd shoestring in the junk drawer can bring a unique touch to a gift package. Once you have given the gift, the person who receives it can recycle the wrapping!
Trash & Recycling- Dumping in the same truck?
Regarding Trash & Recycling pickup:
In the last year, I've gotten a number of complaints about drivers dumping both trash and recycling in the same truck--at the same time.
When I went on the recycling audit, I brought this up to the WM Public Sector Solutions Rep... and discovered WM is able to look up the truck used on the route with date, location and time. I'm told the administrators take this issue seriously.
SO---if you happen to SEE trash and recycling being dumped in the SAME truck at the SAME time... let me know address and time and I would be happy to forward this to WM and confirm if it was a split body truck---or if this was an infraction of the driver.
Recycling Tip: Yogurt Containers
Here's a Recycling Tip I just learned.... Yogurt Containers---
✅the jar is recyclable (after eaten and rinsed).
❌the lid is not recyclable. (Too small)
...I'm thinking of saving my foil lids to crumple into a bigger aluminum ball so they'll be big enough for recycling 😁#tricks
Recycling IQ Audit & Mass DEP Recycling Rules Updates
I joined in with the Waste Management team for one of the last Audits of our Recycling IQ program in Fitchburg this morning! Since the resale market for many recyclables have dropped to near zero--- Recyclers have been forced to up standards and levels of contamination in our recycling. Fitchburg was charged $175K last year due in part to the high levels of contamination in our recycling.
I am waiting on the results of our audit... but the numbers look like we are IMPROVING! They 'measure' the amount of contamination by percentage trash vs recycling in LBS (Pounds baby...pounds)... so the percentage started at 79% trash to recycle in April....and we are down to about 45% trash to recycle in November! I also took a bunch of videos...so I'll post that in a bit... and I also have some info on PIZZA BOXES I am awaiting the final word on....
at TONIGHT's city council meeting the reps from WM will be there to TRASH-TALK and answer questions.... so if you have any questions you'd like me to ask...let me know here and I'll try to answer or get them answered =)
New Recycling news for PIZZA BOXES
As noted in Thursdays Council meeting per presentation by Waste Management--- we have a new Universal Recycling list as approved by Mass DEP.
A few notes of recycling:
Yes---Clean Pizza Boxes (grease ok but no food residue)
Yes- Plastic bottles, jars, tubs and lids, Clear plastic egg cartons
No---Plastic Bags of any kind
No--Plastic Film, bubble wrap etc.
No--Prescription Bottles, nips,take out cartons
**See list for more
