Holiday waste has its proper place

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on December 24, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

With Christmas just a day away, the City of Lethbridge is reminding residents to properly dispose of their holiday waste by making sure items are thrown away in the proper bins.
Meghan Grills with the City of Lethbridge’s Waste and Environment department says many folks get confused around this time of the year with items they believe are recyclable but are actually garbage, or vice-versa.
For example, styrofoam, wrapping paper, ribbons and bows are not recyclable,”but we tend to see those in the blue recycling bin,” says Grills. “Unfortunately, they need to go in the garbage and placed in the black bin.”
She says it’s important to place items in the right place because if garbage ends up in the recyclables it could contaminate the actual recycling and devalue it.
“And if there’s enough contamination, that material could end up going to landfill instead, so it’s really important for people to sort their waste properly.”
The holidays are a time of the year when people also do a lot of “wishcycling,” says Grills, which is when they toss questionable items into their blue bins hoping they get recycled.
“But as much as we all want to reduce waste and recycle as much as we can, doing wishcycling can actually end up contaminating the recyclables. It could damage equipment, depending on the item that’s being thrown away.”
Worse, some items could potentially put people working at the recycling facility at risk as they sort through the items.
“So, we encourage everybody to check if they’re not sure where to put an item,” says Grills. “Look up where they should be thrown away using the city’s waste wizard which can be accessed on our website at curbside.lethbridge.ca.”
Just because an item has the familiar recycling symbol somewhere on it doesn’t necessarily mean it can be tossed into the blue bin.
“Two common things that people think are recyclable…are plastic film and glass,” says Grills, “but they should not be tossed into the blue cart.”
Glass often breaks during transport and once the workers at the recycling facility sort items onto a conveyor belt, the shards can use a safety hazard. Meanwhile, plastic film can get stuck in the gears of the conveyor belt, which can cause other problems.
“When that happens, we have to shut the whole thing down and have somebody climb up to retrieve it,” says Grills. “And that could be quite dangerous for workers to do that.”
She says both of those items should be disposed of in the proper green bins at one of the city’s three recycling centres.
Other recyclable items that can go into the blue bin include cardboard, hard plastics tin cans, aluminum including clean aluminum trays, paper Christmas cards (as long as they are free of any plastic electronics or any other decorations) can also go into the blue bin.
As much as some might wish otherwise, only craft paper or newsprint can go into the blue bin, as long as they are free of any tape, or extra decorations. And of course, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without batteries, but Grills wants residents not to get rid of old ones in any of their home bins.
“Batteries are actually considered hazardous waste and a lot of people don’t realize that,” says Grills. “We don’t want to see batteries in your curb-side bins because it could end up causing fires, either at the recycling facility or at the landfill if they end up in the garbage.”
People should store their batteries in a sealed container, tape the positive ends to avoid fires, and take them to the waste and recycling centre at the city landfill or the various retailers across the city that would take them to properly dispose of them.
And since many will be baking and cooking extra food for the holidays, Grills says to remember there are extra few items that can be tossed into the green bin along with food scraps.
“Any food soiled paper like napkins or paper towels can go in the green bin, as well as parchment paper from baking.”

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