According to www.bing.com holiday waste increases by 25 percent during the holiday season. The biggest sources of waste are wrapping paper, returned gifts, food, greeting cards, decorations, and holiday lights. However, local trash pick-up businesses are prepared.
Ozark Disposal Company in Warsaw will still have five days of pick-up after Christmas and New Year’s Day. They will run Tuesday through Saturday instead of Monday through Friday.
“A lot of the extra trash we pick after holidays includes paper, cardboard and leftover food,” said Kevin Dockery, owner (with his family) of the business. “Some of the resort areas unload trash a couple of times a day during the holidays, so we usually have later hours of pick-up at those locations. Interesting things are sometimes found in Christmas trash such as a $20 bill we found once that must have fallen out of a Christmas card. There have been a few other times when money was found.”
J.S. Disposal in Cole Camp handles trash pick-up in rural areas and services some commercial sites in the city. They have more waste pick-up the week of Christmas and their schedule will change from Monday through Friday to Tuesday through Friday during the holiday weeks with double pick-up on Tuesdays.
“We sometimes find bags of aluminum cans and pieces of iron in the trash and recycle them,” said David Jackson with J.S. Disposal. “But other than that, we don’t do any recycling service.”
Jackson said that their actual heaviest trash pick-up time is in the summer because children are at home and being creative, plus the area gets a lot of visitors at that time.
Brightly.Eco reports that the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year but can also be incredibly wasteful. The average American produces five pounds of trash per day or 35 pounds each. During the holidays that rises to 6.25 pounds per person per day or 43.75 pounds a week. That means that about 2,887,500,000 more pounds of garbage is generated during the holidays relative to the rest of the year.
The site recommends ways to do something about reducing the waste. It suggests reusing old gift wrap or any other paper that can be used for “upcycling.”
Reusable cloth wrapping is also an option, as well as using Mason jars and reusable tote bags for gifts. Gifts such as memberships, park passes, tickets and gift certificates are memorable and can cut down on waste.
Another suggestion is regifting or swapping gifts with someone else instead of returning gifts. By thinking a little more about what a person might like, or need makes a gift less likely to be returned.
To prevent or cut down on food waste, virtually invite guests so you know exactly how many will attend. If there are leftovers, make containers available so guests can take food with them. If leftovers are still available after guests depart use them to make different dishes such as turning ham into soup.
