According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week. Let’s work together as a community to reduce trash and recycle as much as possible this holiday season.
In addition to protecting resources, reducing consumption, and saving landfill space you can save money too! Remember that each residential parcel in Truckee pays for one 32 gallon trash can per week via the tax bill (13 cans per 13 week quarter) before it starts costing you more. The extra trash rate is approximately $2.50 per bag (rate is slightly different for Placer County and unincorporated Nevada County) billed directly by Tahoe Truckee Sierra Disposal. Recycling, with the exception of purchasing blue bags (approximately .30-.50 per bag) is free and unlimited. All you need to do is rinse and place your mixed recycling in blue bags, tie the bag securely and place the bag at the curb or in your bear box for collection on your normal trash collection day.
A couple interesting facts:
- If everyone in the US wrapped just three gifts in reused paper, we would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. (Source: Cygnus Group)
- Each year, 50 million Christmas trees are purchased in the U.S. Of those, 30-plus million get carted to the landfill every year. (Source: Environmental News Network)
Be a trend setter. Do things differently.
Here are a few suggestions on what you can do to reduce waste this holiday season. An easy place to start is simply shopping locally with your own cloth bags.
Reducing waste and giving ‘green’ during the holiday season
Think conservation, not consumption. There are many gifts that actually help people (especially younger ones) learn the value of saving resources, rather than spending them.
- Look for gifts that are unpackaged or minimally packaged, without unnecessary plastic wrap or cardboard backing.
- Evaluate the gift for simplicity and durability.
- Give a donation to a charity in someone else’s name.
- Give services or time instead of stuff (music or language lessons, trip to a state park, etc.)
- Give tickets to sports, theater, concert or other event.
- Give an experience (for example, a ride in a hot air balloon or a river rafting trip).
- Consider the impact of your gift: Is it environmentally friendly and safe for children? Will it be reusable? Is it recyclable or made from recycled materials?
- Purchase holiday cards made from recycled paper or make your own from items found around the home.
- Give a garden! Seeds, gloves, tools, etc.
- Create a family recipe book or picture album.
- Membership to a museum or nonprofit organization.
- Reusable lunch bag.
- 100% cotton dish towels or sheets; look for unbleached cotton.
- Reusable coffee cup.
- Gift basket filled with non-toxic household cleaners
- An old tricycle, bicycle, rocking chair, etc., fixed up to pass along as an heirloom.
- Automatic thermostat control device (automatically turns down heat at night).
- Reusable food storage containers.
- Cloth shopping bag.
- Cloth napkins and rings.
- Reusable razor.
- Durable hand tools.
- Quilts and comforters.
- Water-saving showerhead.
- Gourmet dinner for a busy couple.
- Bird feeder and seed.
- Stationery – made from recycled paper, of course – and stamps.
- Car safety kit packed into a coffee can (e.g. candles, orange hazard triangle, etc.).
More Waste Reduction with Wrapping, Packaging and Greeting Cards
- Creative wrapping paper substitutes include used blueprint paper, the Sunday comics, or even the sports section for a sports enthusiast. Design your own wrapping paper using paper shopping bags: decorate them with paints, crayons, or markers. Have your children decorate paper to use for wrapping paper.
- Replace tissue paper with old lace or strips of paper shopping bags or used gift-wrap.
- If you use traditional gift-wrapping, always buy recycled-content wrapping paper. If your store doesn’t sell recycled-content wrapping paper, ask the manager to order it in the future.
- If you send holiday cards, buy recycled-content cards and envelopes. Or make your own cards out of last year’s cards and the wrapping paper you saved.
- Make gift tags from last year’s holiday cards.
- Shipping a gift? Reuse the foam peanuts from another package, or use unbuttered popcorn for packing.
- Create a child’s play kit from whatnots found around the house.
- Glue used comic book pictures, or playing cards from an incomplete deck to an old box.
- Fill the box with basic creative equipment: scissors, glue, tape, crayons, and colorful paper scraps.
- Search the house for unmatched treasures: bent cookie cutters, old game tokens, fabric scraps, ribbon, yarn, and so on.
- Use leftover dry-cleaner cardboard to cut out the various parts of a house, (walls, roof, chimney, etc.). The child can assemble the house and decorate it with the materials in the box.
- And don’t forget to look for toys, books, and other products made from recycled materials!
After you’ve practiced reducing your waste and reusing what you can, recycle what’s left. Practicing the three R’s of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle can truly cut your trash significantly. You can enjoy the holidays with all the bells and trims with minimal environmental impacts. Here’s what you can recycle:
- Mixed Paper: The general rule of thumb is anything that tears however there are exceptions: recycle most Christmas wrap (the shiny foil/cellophane type varieties are the exceptions; please try and avoid this type of wrap if possible); tissue paper; any clean paper products (paper plates and cups as long as they’re not contaminated with messy food waste); all other mixed paper such as those stacks of catalogs, your old phone books, greeting cards, notebook paper, office paper, colored paper and junk mail.
- Mixed Plastics: All plastics #1-7 with the exception of Styrofoam and plastic grocery bags can be recycled. Avoid Styrofoam as much as possible. Shop using cloth bags: cloth bags hold up better and once you get in the habitat of taking your own bags to the store chances are you’ll never go back. If you forget your cloth bags you can recycle plastic bags at Safeway or Albertson’s. Mixed Rigid plastic can all be recycled using your blue bags: examples of mixed rigid plastic includes: disc sleds, children’s toys, laundry baskets.
- Aluminum FOIL and cans: Aluminum Foil is a recent addition to the list of recyclables! As long as its cleaned it can be tossed in your blue bags!
- Tin, Steel and bi-metal cans.
- Glass bottles and jars.
- Cardboard: Cardboard must be broken down and cut to fit into your blue bags for curbside pick up. Loose cardboard left next to your trash will be counted as trash and you will receive a charge. If you have more cardboard than you can fit in your blue bags there are two cardboard only dumpsters located at the fire station on Donner Pass Road next to the old middle school, simply break down your boxes and drop them off.
- Packing peanuts: You can now recycle your shipping peanuts. Simply bring them to Mail Boxes Etc, 11448 Deerfield Drive in Truckee. 530-582-0444
- Purchasing Blue Bags: There are many retailers that carry blue bags in our area however be aware that all blue bags are not created equally. Strength matters. Blue bags must hold up in the trash collection process before they are pulled at the transfer station from the waste stream for processing.
Here’s the list of local retailers supplying blue bags:
- Lake Tahoe Supply*: offers 40 x 46 (that’s large) 2 mil blue bags in 100 bag cases. Buying in bulk could save you money! 10939 A Industrial Way, Suite 100 (in the Pioneer Business Center).
- Mountain Hardware*: sells multiple sizes in rolls. 11320 Donner Pass Road
- Safeway: 11290 Donner Pass Road – be aware that blue bags at Safeway are hard to spot on the shelves. Look closely.
- Longs: 11411 Deerfield Dr.
- Albertson’s: 11399 Deerfield Dr
- Ames Deli: 12716 Northwoods Blvd
* most durable bags.
Please rinse recyclables. Place them in blue bags (not over stuffing/stressing the bags), tie the bags securely and place your blue bags on your curb, in your bear box, or in your trash dumpster for collection of your normal trash collection day.
For questions and comments please contact Nichole Dorr, Recycling Coordinator for the Town of Truckee at 582-2909 or ndorr@townoftruckee.com
Happy holidays and thanks for helping to reduce your waste this holiday season.
