Picture an ideal Christmas Eve scene. The tree is trimmed, and wrapped gifts are stacked beneath it. Holiday tunes are playing. Soda and beer cans are popped open. Wine is chilled.
Now picture the same house Christmas morning. Gift wrapping covers the floors and there are open gift boxes everywhere along with empty cans and bottles.
Christmas means good cheer and good will toward men, but it also means a lot of trash. However, a lot of that debris can be recycled or reused.
Start with the cards and gifts. Gift wrapping, as long as it is not metallic, is recyclable, just like newspaper. Cardboard gift boxes are recyclable like all cardboard that isn’t contaminated by food. Paper envelopes and greeting cards are recyclable.
Ribbons, bows and styrofoam packing peanuts are not recyclable. Neither is plastic film or bubble wrap, according to the city’s Streets Department. They’re trash unless you want to reuse them yourself or give them to a private shipping store.
Fabrics or rubber bands used to wrap gifts also are not recyclable. The plastic bags that encase some gifts inside their boxes are not recyclable.
Moving on to the holiday feasting and snacking: The beer and soda cans, the boxes they came in, glass wine and liquor bottles and plastic bottles are all recyclable. Also recyclable are plastic cups and plates and take-out containers.
Your old laptop, old TV and that old cassette player are not recyclable. Almost no electronics are. Computers and computer monitors, which are considered hazardous waste, don’t go out in the trash, either.
You can take them to the Streets Department drop-off point at State Road and Ashburner Street Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Common household batteries — AAs, AAAs, Cs and Ds — are not considered hazardous waste and may be placed in the trash.
Old cell phones are recyclable. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp., according to the Streets Department, has launched a nationwide program to collect old cell phones at participating retailers. Call 1–877–2-RECYCLE or go to www.call2recycle.org to find a drop-off location.
As the Northeast Times reported last week, Christmas trees, as long as all the ornaments are off, are recyclable.
You can take them to the Sanitation Convenience Center at State Road and Ashburner Street for recycling from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday from Jan. 5 to 17.
There are other convenient spots to drop off trees.
Visit www.philadelphiastreets.com/holiday/2015-christmas-tree-recycling-program for locations. ••
