Recycling Tips For The Holidays

November 23, 2015

Recycling Tips For The Holidays

The holiday season is fast approaching and we have 8 recycling tips to help you celebrate this year!  Whether you’re hosting an intimate gathering or throwing a holiday bash, use these tips to keep your waste to a minimum.

1. Designate a space for recycling.  Everyone knows (or asks) where your trash can is, and they should know where your recycling bin is too.  If you don’t have a recycling bin inside your house, use a cardboard box or paper bags.  Label them as “Recycling” and be sure your guests know what to recycle.  Clean up will be a breeze, just toss all the recycling into your blue alley dumpster or roll-out cart.
2. Reuse and Recycle leftover gift packaging.  Most gift bags, wrapping paper (and tubes!), cardboard boxes, paper boxes and tissue paper are recyclable!  Reuse what you can for next year and what ever is left over, toss in your blue recycling bin.  Remember to break down and FLATTEN ALL BOXES to make room in the recycling dumpster for you and your neighbors…it’s the holiday spirit!
3. Speaking of spirits. You and your friends and family might share a few as you celebrate. Remember all bottles, cans and cartons are recyclable and should go in your blue recycling bin. Use the best hepa vacuum to clean, give them a quick rinse and toss them in your blue bin!
4. Kitchens are the epicenter of recycling. So many of the containers you empty to make that delicious meal are recyclable.  Make sure to rinse the food remnants off your cans, jars and cartons.  Then, just toss them in your blue bin!
5. Ditch the disposable dinnerware. Break out the real stuff. It will help you reduce waste and add a special touch to your party.
6. Think about donating. You may want to get rid of some old things after receiving your gifts. Before trashing them, try donating. Click here for some resources.
7. Recycle that tree. Drop-off your tree for recycling at one of these City parks: Forest Park, O’Fallon and Carondelet.  Or, put your tree out for your regularly scheduled bulk pick-up (find out when your bulk collection is here).  Please DO NOT put trees in the yard waste dumpsters.
8. Follow and share. Finally, have fun and share all of your holiday recycling tips with us on social media! #RecycleForTheLou #HolidayRecyclingInSTL

6 responses to “Recycling Tips For The Holidays”

1. Mike Schmidt says:

   November 27, 2015 at 2:45 pm

   I have been given contradictory information about recycling and food. At one point, we ran many recyclable containers through the dishwasher to remove food (yes, washing the trash), and only put pizza boxes in the recycling if there was no trace of cheese or pizza sauce stuck to the box. Then we were told that there was no need for that level of fastidiousness–that modern recycling could handle the normal traces of food associated with empty food containers and pizza boxes. What do you really need to see?

   Reply
   • Beth MacKenzie says:

     December 1, 2015 at 12:41 pm

     A quick rinse of food containers should do the trick. No need to scrub them or run them through the dishwasher. As for pizza boxes, a little bit of grease is fine, but if it’s covered in cheese and grease, leave it out. Most of the time, the top of the pizza box can be torn off and recycled, leaving the bottom half to the trash.

2. Erma Willis says:

   January 13, 2016 at 9:06 am

   Thanks for the interesting post! I want to follow your tips for recycling better and efficiently. Greetings

   Reply
3. Ivy Baker says:

   June 7, 2017 at 11:05 pm

   I liked that you talked about how it would be a good idea to set up a place to put your recyclables. I really want to manage my waste better and starting recycling might do just that. So, setting up separate trash cans for thing could make the transition really easy.

   Reply
4. Ernest London says:

   August 22, 2017 at 3:24 pm

   Thanks for the recycling tips. My family has a goal this year to be more environmentally friendly, and we want to start with being better at recycling. I like that you mentioned to break down and flatten all boxes so you can make more room in the recycling dumpster. It makes sense that you should make room for everybody else who might want to recycle.

   Reply
   • Elysia Musumeci says:

     October 3, 2017 at 9:13 am

     We agree! Especially with the holidays coming up, there will be more opportunities to recycle cardboard and paper!