Holidays bring trash. Think black bags overflowing with wrapping paper and bows. Champagne bottles precariously stacked in curbside bins. A pile of Amazon boxes, waiting to be broken down.
On an average day, San Francisco waste processor Recology picks up 650 tons of recycling and 800 tons of food scraps and yard trimmings. Those numbers spike 17 percent during the holiday season, picking up at Thanksgiving as compost buckets fill with food scraps and continuing as the deluge of packaging from online orders arrives. Christmas trees line the streets waiting for pickup in January.
“This is our busiest time of the year. We are at full force,” Recology public relations manager Robert Reed said. “We will achieve the same or higher recycling and composting percentages during this period. We’re very confident about this. There’s a lot of work to do.”
It’s been a rough year for recycling as China raised standards for which plastics it would accept, leaving San Francisco and other cities scrambling to figure out what to do with trash. Nearly all of Recology’s waste used to go to China. Now it’s sent to Malaysia and Indonesia as well as places in the Bay Area and across California.
“It’s a challenge, and San Francisco is stepping up to the challenge,” Reed said. “This has made us more athletic. It’s made us better. We are putting our heart and soul into this. We believe in the ultimate goal of zero waste and trying to send less and less to landfill every week and ultimately recycling and composting everything.”
Here’s how you can help, though bear in mind that other recyclers may have different guidelines.
Dos and don’ts for holiday trash
1. Break down cardboard boxes.
As online shopping has boomed, Recology has seen a shift from picking up boxes at stores to homes. Days after Black Friday and Cyber Monday — the biggest shopping days in the U.S. — small and medium-size boxes start appearing at Recology’s India Basin recycling facility, Reed said. The influx continues throughout the holidays.
In the past, it was hard to recycle cardboard: Reed said Recology workers had to manually sort boxes from the conveyor belt. But four years ago, the company invested in a $600,000 machine from the Netherlands that can separate boxes from other recyclables.
Breaking down boxes is an easy way to save space in recycling bins. Extra cardboard should be set out in a small box or tied up with string, twine or tape, so the collector can easily throw it in a truck.
2. Recycle gift wrapping paper — or avoid using it.
Metallic wrapping paper and shiny bows with stickers on the back are hard to recycle, but Recology urges residents to do it anyway.
“It’s our job to make it as simple as possible for people,” Reed said. “Our message and the city’s message is to put all wrapping paper into the recycling bin. We will get as much of it as possible recycled. We will get it sorted.”
The better option, though, is to avoid hard-to-recycle metallic paper. Recology instead encourages using reusable, recyclable or compostable materials. Try a mason jar, which can be repurposed, or tissue paper, which can be composted, instead of metallic paper.
3. Eat, drink, be merry, and dispose of it properly — or minimize packaging in the first place.
When holiday gift or grocery shopping, try to avoid plastic bags or shrink-wrapped food products. When possible, choose glass containers over plastic because glass gets recycled in the Bay Area while plastic is harder to break down and has to be transported farther away.
Compost plate scrapings and vegetable peelings from holiday meals. Don’t compost “biodegradable” plastics; material must be labeled as compost-able.
Empty bottles and cans to prevent liquids from spoiling paper in recycling bins.
4. Know your trash schedule.
This year, Christmas and New Year’s Day — Recology’s two holidays — fall on Wednesdays. If you have Wednesday pickup, extra service is scheduled for Dec. 21 and 28 plus Jan 4.
Christmas tree collection runs Jan. 2 to 15. Place trees curbside and remove all plastic bags, lights, decorations, tinsel and stands. If it’s taller than six feet, cut it in half.
Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench
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December 25, 2019 at 03:00AM
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Drowning in holiday trash? Here’s what to do with it in San Francisco - San Francisco Chronicle
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