SALT LAKE CITY — It’s "the most wonderful time of the year," but it’s also the most wasteful time of the year.
There is a "Nice List" of materials that can be recycled, like paper and cardboard, and a "Naughty List" of things that cannot be recycled, like shiny wrapping paper and lights, according to Sione Tuione, the sustainability and recycling manager with the Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling District.
“It keeps us very busy because most people will just want to get rid of everything they got out of Christmas, all their boxes and stuff, and they put everything together again in a recycle container, so instead of sorting them now, they just throw them all in the recycle can,” he said. “Probably the last thing that they think about after the holiday is, recycle the right way, and so they want to just get rid of all that mess that they have, just open up all the gifts and they need to get rid of all of it.”
Tuione says there are so many things people end up tossing that can easily be reused.
“We’re speeding up the lifespan of the landfill to be filled up in our city,” he said. “Some of those items, they don’t dispose of very good, so they’re in the ground for years and years and years.”
Plus, you save money by reusing the same lights and wrapping paper year after year, he said.
“Most of the material that we use on holidays can be reused for so many years, so we just have to be smart about things,” said Tuione.
Many Utah cities also do Christmas tree and wreath collection to turn them into compost. Details on how, where and when these collections take place can be found HERE.
