The presents are all unwrapped. The Christmas trees already kicked to the curb. The lights and ornaments back in the garage. But at Recology’s San Francisco recycling yard, Christmas was just beginning.
An endless stream of trucks dumped off more than six tons of trash each day, up nearly 20 percent over the plain old non-holiday time. The trash sorters at the Pier 96 plant were racking up plentiful overtime sorting through the gift wrapping, cardboard shipping boxes and empty champagne bottles.