FAYETTEVILLE -- After the presents have been opened and the stockings taken down with care, it's time to figure out what to do with all the Christmas-related trash that comes with the holiday.
The city and its waste partners want to help residents understand what can and cannot be recycled.
Holiday recycling
• All cardboard must be broken down and placed underneath the recycling bin.
• No aluminum foil or baking tins will be recycled.
• The city will not accept wrapping paper to recycle. Boston Mountain Solid Waste District will.
• Electronics and Christmas lights can be taken to the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District’s two facilities starting today through Jan. 4. Acceptable items include computers, printers, copiers, phones, stereos, TVs, fax machines, cables, shredders, microwaves, DVD and VHS players, video game consoles, satellite receivers and handheld devices.
— Boston Mountain Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 2721 S. Brink Drive in Fayetteville
Open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed for lunch 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. each day.
— Boston Mountain Solid Waste District at 11398 Bond Road in Prairie Grove
Open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.
• Christmas trees will be picked up during regular trash collection days in January.
• Trash collection in the city will be delayed by one day this week and the week of the New Year’s holiday.
For more information, go to: fayetteville-ar.gov…
Source: City of Fayetteville
The holidays usually mean more garbage than usual for households. Residents get four free extra bag pickups per year. Any waste cart with something sticking out of it so the lid can't close counts as an extra bag, per the city's online information. An additional bag pickup costs $6.40.
Two recycling bins are also available to each curbside customer. The city recommends recycling as much as possible in order to avoid the need for extra bags, according to a city news release.
But not everything that a resident thinks is recyclable actually is, said Brian Pugh, waste reduction coordinator. The prime suspect is wrapping paper, he said.
"If you had wrapping paper by itself, then that would be recyclable," Pugh said. "But what you get at Christmastime is people open their presents, and they have tape and ribbons. Sometimes this gift wrap is not even paper, it's foil. It's plastic-lined or laminated-lined. It's not good, quality paper.
"So, as a rule we just say no gift wrap because of that fact -- because it's contaminated with a lot of other types of materials," he said.
Communicating to residents that recycling means more than putting something in a bin, that materials have to be clean and acceptable to the markets that process them, is a major message of the city, Pugh said.
Last year, the city adopted a recycling plan to keep 40 percent of waste out of the landfill by 2027. The plan includes an expansion of services, such as recycling options for apartments, food waste composting and construction bulky waste pickup, among others.
The plan also has an education component. The city has resources on its website to help residents know how and what they can recycle, for example.
Other problematic items that pop up around the holidays are Christmas lights and electronics. The Boston Mountain Solid Waste District will accept such items starting today through Jan. 4 at its household hazardous waste site in the city and its facility in Prairie Grove.
Those kinds of items can damage equipment if not processed properly, according to waste officials.
Robyn Reed, director of the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District, said the district usually sees a small uptick in recycling items but a ton more trash during the holidays.
Oftentimes an influx of materials that could be recycled ends up going to the trash, Reed said.
"Make two piles," she said. "One that's your recyclables and one that's for your trash, and just go from there."
Because Boston Mountain serves a smaller population, Reed said the district will accept wrapping paper for recycling. Facility operators still have to sift through it to remove tape and discern which types of paper are recyclable, however.
Brandon Wright with the National Waste and Recycling Association said the best rule of thumb is to check with your local waste service provider to see what can be recycled. China's decision earlier this year to ban many of the items coming from the United States because of contamination put waste officials across the country on high alert to more effectively communicate best practices, he said.
People tend to either try to recycle too much or give up and throw everything in the trash, Wright said. Neither option is ideal.
"Those overzealous recyclers -- God bless them -- we call that wish-cycling," he said. "You want to do good for the environment, and you just assume somebody is going to take care of it."
Waste officials also acknowledge what they refer to as the Amazon effect -- a massive increase in the amount of cardboard being thrown out.
The city implores residents to break down any cardboard. Otherwise, collectors won't take them.
The markets have gotten pickier; therefore, the city has to be more scrupulous when it comes to collection, Pugh said. That effort starts with resident participation.
"We've got to get people to understand that recycling cannot be contaminated," he said. "We've gotten away in a lot of respects and in a lot of communities from that message."
Then, of course, there is the perennial holiday-time trash item: the discarded Christmas tree.
City crews will pick up Christmas trees during regular resident waste collection days through January. All decorations, stands or bags must be removed. The trees will be composted.
Artificial trees will not be collected for composting.
NW News on 12/26/2018