{"id":1831,"date":"2017-12-08T11:07:51","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T19:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greendogpetsupply.com\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2025-10-30T20:05:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:05:42","slug":"holiday-recycling-tips-why-some-items-cant-go-in-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lela.greendogpetsupply.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/08\/holiday-recycling-tips-why-some-items-cant-go-in-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Recycling Tips & Why Some Items Can\u2019t Go In Recycling:"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>We generate a lot of waste on Christmas morning, so here are some tips for ways to keep waste in check:<\/p>\n

Ribbons Are Not Recyclable<\/strong><\/span>
\nPro Tip:<\/strong><\/span> Keep a small bag of ribbons you’ve received in the place you store your wrapping paper – they can come in so handy when you need to wrap a quick present at other times of the year. If a friend is down in the dumps, cookies wrapped in foil with a reused ribbon or a Ball Jar filled with nuts with a reused ribbon around the neck of the jar makes a really quick thoughtful gesture of support!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any paper or envelope with decorative foil has to go in the garbage<\/span><\/strong><\/span> (though all other wrapping paper, tissue paper, cards and envelopes can go in your blue recycle bin, minus the ribbons).
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pro Tip:<\/strong><\/span> On Christmas morning, set up two collection bags ahead of time when it\u2019s time to unwrap gifts. One for wrapping paper, tissue and cards, and the other for ribbons and foil.<\/strong> It can be fun for kids to be in charge of things, so make one little elf in charge of bringing presents to people to unwrap, and another little elf that can be in charge of grabbing that wrapping paper and getting it into the right bag. You’ll be amazed at how much tidier the living room looks after present opening!<\/span> Don’t forget: Those foil covered papers and ribbons are great for kids’ craft projects. Keep some pretty pieces for yourself for gift wrapping reuse throughout the year. A brown paper shopping bag used as wrapping paper can look beautiful with a decorative accent cut out of your reused foil paper attached to the top.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Styrofoam Packaging peanuts and Bubble Wrap cannot go in curbside, but other places will reuse them.<\/span> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pro Tip:<\/span><\/strong> Places like the UPS store and Fedex are often happy to take your clean bagged Styrofoam peanuts – call your local store and ask. Excess cardboard boxes, Bubble Wrap and packing peanuts can be posted on Craig’s List or Next Door. People who are moving might appreciate them or small businesses in the neighborhood might want to use these for shipping and will come take them off your hands. We at Green Dog have a short list of people in the neighborhood that own businesses that ship products, and we make sure to call them to come pick up free packing material when we get it, and they are very happy to save the expense and guilt of buying it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corks can\u2019t go in curbside bins
\n<\/span>Pro Tip:<\/span><\/strong> Corks make great crafting material (glue them onto a sturdy surface and they make a good message board!). Local Portland folks might try taking them to New Seasons – we’ve seen collection bins for them there. Find other drop off points near you at https:\/\/recork.com\/us\/en\/locations<\/a>. Do you know someone who owns a wine store? Recork will send them a prepaid shipping box to send 15lbs at a time.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lots of updated electronic devices might mean lots of E-waste when you get rid of your old devices.
\n<\/span>Pro Tip:<\/span><\/strong> Check out Free Geek! <\/a>they recycle or reuse just about everything with a plug.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Interesting things from your Holiday dinners and decorating that you CAN include in your Portland compost bin:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

– meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, bones\u2028, coffee filters, coffee grounds, tea bags\u2028<\/span> <\/strong>\"\"<\/a>
\n– pumpkins<\/span><\/strong>
\n– Greens<\/strong><\/span> from wreaths and even your tree, cut down into 3ft. lengths and free of wire, tinsel, etc. (you might have to break it up over a few pickups as it can\u2019t be sticking up out of the bin, but it\u2019s a good way to have your tree picked up for free)
\n– Enter your address here<\/a> to find other nearby places to recycle your Christmas Tree<\/p>\n

Pro Tip:<\/span><\/strong> Make crafts from common items instead of recycling them<\/strong>
\nMake lanterns from metal cans! instructions here<\/a>
\nBottles make pretty DIY crafts – a quick google search of homemade gifts from wine bottles (or any other material!) yields tons of ideas like these<\/a><\/p>\n

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Including non-recyclable items in your bins might make them throw all of your recycling away!<\/span>
\nUnfortunately it\u2019s easy to contaminate our curbside recycling bins with well-intentioned attempts to recycle things that we wish<\/em> they would take, or with little things that we don\u2019t realize can ruin the ability to recycle the rest of the material.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>For example, lids are almost always made of a different plastic than the bottle or tub they\u2019re sold with. It\u2019s too work-intensive for workers to remove them (too few people, too much recycling to pick through quickly, and everything still needs to get washed and processed or packed up to be processed elsewhere) and the plastic in the lid is a very different plastic, with a higher melting point than bottles and processed an entirely different way. Things like plastic bags and caps can also jam machinery when they get into the mix accidentally, so can cause damage and make them more likely to toss \u201ccontaminated\u201d recycling instead of sorting it. A light bulb might be made of glass, but their different melting points and chemical compositions will ruin new glass bottles. If a buyer of glass sees a light bulb at the top of a load of glass, the entire load could be rejected for recycling. This kinds of hopeful recycling often means that all of our good intentions are foiled. When in doubt, leave it out!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a list of some common things that are mistakenly added to recycling\/compost<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n