By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
Early bird shoppers have probably already purchased their holiday gifts. Boxes of toys, clothes, books and more are being delivered by harried UPS, FedEx and Amazon drivers every day. As Black Friday and Cyber Monday draw near, procras- tinators will jump on the gift-buying bandwagon. But purchasing the gifts is just the first step in the holiday present parade. Once all the gifts arrive, they have to be swathed in paper and tied up in bows or placed in bags – away from prying eyes until the big day.
And as any parent knows, a few hours after the whirlwind unwrapping that accompanies the excitement of a holiday morning, there’s a mountain of paper, ribbons, bows, bags, boxes and packaging to dispose of. “Typically, I like to tell the positive story of recycling,” said Brynn Mosello, the marketing and program director at Mazza Recycling in Tinton Falls. Mazza handles the recycling for all the municipalities in the Two River area.
“We take a majority of all the different recyclable household materials people can recycle, the things they use at home,” Mosello said.
“But when it comes to holiday time,” she said, “the list of negatives takes shape.”
And those negatives pile up faster than the holiday detritus.
That metallic, shiny wrapping paper? Keep it out of the recycling bin. So too any wrapping paper with glitter. Ribbons and bows are a no-go, as are gift bags with foil or glitter or ribbon handles. Even the tissue paper lining those bags isn’t recycling material: “It has such low fiber – less than newspaper – and the color tends to bleed out in the recycling process,” Mosello said.
Other items that are destined for the trash heap: shipping mailers lined with bubble wrap, those inflated plastic pillows that prevent things from sliding around during shipping, packing peanuts and especially Styrofoam.
“We don’t want any of the Styrofoam, whether it’s the thicker, more rigid Styrofoam or the packing peanuts,” Mosello said. “We don’t want that in the recycling bin at the curb.”
If you do find yourself with Styrofoam – from that new high-definition TV, gaming system or countertop convection oven – try the Middletown Recycling Centers at 52 Kanes Lane or at the Middletown Train Station. Middletown was the first municipality in the state to have a Styrofoam recycling machine which breaks down the material into a product that can be sold and reused.
According to James F. Mazza, president and CEO of Mazza Recycling, “The most important thing to remember is leave out the plastic film from packaging, Styrofoam and tanglers,” those items that can get tangled around the equipment.
“The biggest contaminants are long pieces of ribbons, Christmas lights. We see a lot of those kinds of things that can tangle around the equipment all the time,” said Mosello, especially this time of year.
While Christmas lights shouldn’t go in single stream recycling bins, Mosello said Mazza Recycling will take old, faulty lights at their scrap metal division, because of the copper wire.
Most municipalities now use single stream recycling, in which all recyclable items get tossed into the same bin and picked up at the same time.
“This reduces the amount of labor costs and trucks on the road, while making it easier for residents to properly recycle and increasing their participation,” Mazza said.
And don’t panic if something slips through during the holiday craziness and ends up in the recycling bin when it should’ve gone in the trash.
Mazza explained that the advanced sorting technology the company uses allows them “to sort through all this mixed material efficiently and effectively so residents don’t have to get it right every time.”
“We will do the due diligence of reducing waste to the landfill this holiday season and recycling as much as humanly possible,” he said.
While there is a long list of items that can’t be recycled, if you are hoping to be more eco-friendly this holiday season, don’t be completely discouraged. There are some wrappings that can stay out of the trash, including gift boxes – the thin chipboard ones for boxing up clothing – greeting cards and envelopes (as long as they aren’t foil-lined); gift bags and wrapping paper without any adornment, and shipping boxes – you don’t even have to remove the labels.
When choosing your wrapping papers this year, Mosello said one of the best options is plain brown craft paper and bags. They are both sturdy, recyclable and reusable. And they can be embellished in all sorts of ways, like with markers and stamps. Natural items like leaves, twigs, jute, berries and cinnamon sticks make beautiful tie-ons and are compostable after the unwrapping.
And when all the festivities are over and January is staring us in the face, Dominick J. Mazza Jr., Mazza Recycling’s vice president, wants to make sure you also recycle that fir tree you cut down and brought indoors.
“At our site in Tinton Falls, we accept brush, logs, leaves and stumps to produce high quality mulch. Be sure to remove all tinsel and ornaments from your Christmas tree before leaving it at your curb,” he noted.
You can also bring it directly to their facility or contact your municipality with any other questions about how to properly recycle your tree.
This article originally appeared in the Nov. 25 – Dec. 1, 2021, print edition of The Two River Times. (Editor’s note: This article was updated online. Information about recycling Christmas lights was added.)
