Questions about waste and recycling come up as we head into the holidays. Does Christmas wrapping paper go in the recycling bin? Where should live trees go?
The City of Steinbach’s solid waste manager Eldon Wallman says a list of recycling dos and don’ts is on the City of Steinbach website year round.
Wallman says wrapping paper is generally not recyclable—with a few exceptions.
“Most wrapping paper is the end of life for recycling paper, and it generally does not go into recycling unless you bought some really nice stuff somewhere,” Wallman says.
He says recyclable wrapping papers still have fibre to reproduce more paper, unlike others that have been rebuilt and mashed over again.
He says when people throw things into recycling that are meant for garbage, it can contaminate the load.
“It makes it a little awkward at the sites where they do the sorting. We should help those people out as much as we can, try and stick to the rules as best you can,” he says.
For live Christmas trees, they will pick them up from the end of driveways as soon as you start putting them out.
“We usually pick up the last trees of the year, believe it or not, around May,” he says. “There's not much for needles left on it. It's a Charlie Brown tree after that.”
With files from Kenton Dyck.
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