Holiday Trash or Treasure? A Cape Cod Guide to Cleaning Up Your Festive Fallout
~A note from Extension’s Kari Parcell, Regional Waste Reduction Coordinator
The holidays are pure magic until the cleanup begins. Suddenly your living room looks like a glitter bomb met a cardboard avalanche, and you’re left wondering: Is this trash or treasure?
Good news, Cape Cod. Cape Cod Cooperative Extension is here to help you sort it out, keep waste out of our landfills, and protect our coastline.
🎁 Wrapping Paper, Gift Bags, Ribbon, Bows, and Tissue Paper
If your gift wrap is covered in glitter, foil, or anything shiny that screams extra, toss it. Recycling does not do bling.
Gift bags are recyclable only if they are plain and boring, no metallic ink, glitter, or foil. Got fancy string handles? Snip them off before tossing the bag in the bin.
Ribbons and bows? Unless you are reusing them, they are trash too.
📦 Cardboard: The True Recycling MVP
Ah, cardboard, recycling’s golden child. But only cardboard that has been stripped of plastic bits can be recycled. Those toy and doll boxes with plastic windows? Strip them down like they are auditioning for a new life in the bin.
Flatten your boxes (no nesting them like Russian dolls), and you’re good to go.
📬 Bubble Wrap and Padded Envelopes: The Recyclable Rebels
Plastic padded envelopes and bubble wrap? They belong at participating stores with plastic bags, not in your bin. Pro Tip: Plastic wrap is the diva of recycling, it jams machines and makes workers miserable. So do your part, Cape Cod, and keep it out of your cart. Paper envelopes with plastic padding on the inside go in the trash. Bubble wrap and fully plastic padded envelopes can be brought back to participating supermarkets to be properly recycled along with plastic wrap and plastic bags.
🎈 Packing Peanuts and Foam Blocks: The Party Crashers
Packing peanuts and foam are the absolute worst at recycling plants. They are crumbly, annoying, and contaminating everything in sight. Reuse them if you can, and when you’ve had enough, send them to the trash.
💌 Greeting Cards: Glitter’s Revenge
We know, Cape Codders, glitter is festive. But it’s also the arch-nemesis of recycling.
Plain paper cards? Recycle away.
Cards with glitter, foil, or those weird button batteries that make the card sing? Trash ‘em (but dispose of batteries properly because nobody wants a dumpster fire, literally). The fancier the paper, the less recyclable it is. Does your card have a battery? This battery guide can help you identify and properly handle batteries. And speaking of batteries…
🔋 Batteries: Tiny Powerhouses, Big Problems
Rechargeable and button batteries are the silent troublemakers of trash; they can spark fires if tossed improperly. Drop them off at your local transfer station. Your local transfer station and some retailers will take batteries. Alkaline batteries (AA, AAA, etc.) can go in the trash but do so with care.
🌲 Trees and Wreaths: A Tale of Two Greenery Types
Real Christmas trees? They’re compost gold! Most towns provide Christmas tree collection programs (usually during the first 2 weeks in January), and don’t forget to strip the tree of all its holiday bling. Wreaths, on the other hand, are the black sheep of holiday greenery – trash ‘em because their wires are contaminant city.
✨ Holiday String Lights: Not Just for Christmas Trees
Broken or unwanted lights? Don’t get lazy. Recycle them at your local transfer station. They don’t belong in your curbside bin. Be kind to the planet and your garbage collector. Click here for more info on recycling your lights at Cape Cod transfer stations.
❓ Still confused about what to do with that tinsel-covered something your in-laws gifted you?
Cape Cod Cooperative Extension is just a click or email away! Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] or check out Extension’s website.
Cape Cod Cooperative Extension: Working for You
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Learn more about all our programs at capecod.gov/extension.
