HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Between holiday parties, gifts, and decorations, there’s a good chance your trash is extra full this time of year.
Mecklenburg County’s Solid Waste director Jeffrey Smithberger explains the county facilities take in about 25% more trash in December than any other month of the year, but not all of it has to go to the landfill.
“Our region is running out of landfill capacity, and we want to gainfully and better use these things,” Smithberger said.
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To accommodate and process even more volume, he said the North Mecklenburg Recycling Center finished its expansion last week.
Cardboard is the primary source of holiday waste coming into these facilities.
Things like packaging and boxes are fully recyclable, and other paper products like wrapping paper are almost entirely recyclable as well.
“The only thing we can’t handle are the bows and other garnishment things,” he said.
Notable exceptions are foil-based wrapping papers or wrapping papers with a ton of glitter. The same rules apply to holiday cards.
“If it’s just paper, we want it, so please put that in the recycling,” he said.
Things get a little more complicated with plastic. The recycling facilities only have the capacity to process plastic with necks, like bottles or detergent containers.
Food containers, particularly thermoforms, which you might use to pack up cookies or leftovers, are not recyclable.
Most importantly, Smithberger wants everyone to remember, if you get new electronics, don’t throw the old ones, especially those with rechargeable batteries, straight in the trash. Take them to recycling centers like the North Mecklenburg location to have the batteries safely processed to be eventually reused.
“They’re very, very toxic to the waste stream, and plus, they cause fires,” he said. “They burn up our collection vehicles, they burn up our recycling centers; we have to take special care.”
If you have a live Christmas tree, that also gets recycled in a way. You can put it at the curb with your trash after the holidays, and it will be picked up like any other yard waste and taken to the solid waste composting center.
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