Riding the Holiday Waste Wave

As municipalities and waste pros recoup from the Thanksgiving wave of food waste, they head into the next big trash-generating stretch of holidays. This time on top of the mountains of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing leftovers, they will be knee deep in boxes and other packaging, and a flood of sundries residents drag from their closets to their bins to make room for what they’ve been gifted this year.

Candace Rutherford, director of Feedstock Origination and Development at Brightmark, has advice for waste warriors on how to keep going as a tough job gets even tougher—at least for the next couple of weeks.

Waste360: What are the most common holiday items that end up in the stream that do not belong there? And what tools have proven successful in reducing contamination?

Rutherford: Notably, plastic waste in particular skyrockets during the holidays, and that would be more types than plastic #1 (polyethylene terephthalate or PET) and plastic #2 (high-density polyethylene or HDPE) that are typically collected.

Common holiday items that are a contamination source include holiday string lights, wrapping paper, bows, ribbons, bubble wrap, as well as expanded polystyrene –many of which can wrap around [or jam in] recycling line components and cause problems. On top of all this, materials recovery facilities can expect seasonal displays on retail storefronts to add an additional layer of waste.

In general, there will be more mixed plastics, which do not work well for conventional mechanical recycling but can be addressed by other processes, such as advanced (chemical) recycling.

Communities can leverage special drop-off locations and pick-up drives to properly discard items such as batteries, electronic devices, and Christmas trees. This will help direct recyclables into the correct containers.

Targeting several groups of people can increase recycling, especially around the holidays.

Among strategies, communities can target young people to encourage better recycling behavior and promote recycling awareness. Local municipalities can collaborate with neighboring communities around recycling initiatives. Work with local agricultural offices to build attention around recycling programs.

Waste360: How can municipalities work with their vendors to brace for the holidays?

Rutherford: Municipalities can communicate in advance of scheduling changes around the holidays and provide drop-off locations as well as curbside pick-ups to handle any overflow. There are digital waste solutions providers like Rubicon that offer real-time route monitoring and navigation to haulers to meet the dynamic changes of holiday schedules.

Waste360: What are some of the most creative programs you know of to manage live Christmas trees after the holidays?

Rutherford: A practice commonly done in the South is to submerge recycled Christmas trees in bodies of water to create fish habitats. The trees provide shelter and breeding grounds for fish, benefiting local ecosystems and providing support for the entire aquatic food chain while extending the life of a valuable natural resource; reports show as much as a 10-year life expectancy for a recycled tree.

However, it’s important to know that adding artificial habitat to waterways is illegal in some states, while some require a permit.

Similarly, in certain regions, used Christmas trees are collected and placed in wildlife sanctuaries to provide shelter for birds and other small animals during the winter. These Christmas tree farms are routinely cultivated on unused farmland.

Additionally, many communities organize tree-cycling programs where residents can drop off their used Christmas trees. These trees are then chipped into mulch, which is often provided back to the community for use in parks and gardens for erosion control.

In areas with composting facilities, Christmas trees can be collected and processed into compost, which can then be used to enrich soil in parks or community gardens.

The Northeast Indiana Solid Waste Management District has 13 composting sites in the four-county areas that they manage that will take any and all live trees with no lights and or decorations, and other municipalities likely have similar programs.

Waste360: What kind of messaging and outreach can municipalities do this time of year?

Rutherford: Local municipalities must engage with residents on responsible waste recycling to build sustainable and resilient communities. The best way to do this is by providing straightforward, relevant guidance and initiatives that are engaging and easy to take advantage of.

Brightmark put this belief into action earlier this summer when we launched a plastic recycling pilot in collaboration with Downtown Fort Wayne as part of the city’s “Lunch on the Square” food and entertainment series. The partnership included installing recycling collection points throughout the town square to collect plastic waste left behind from the event, which Brightmark could repurpose through its plastics renewal technology. Because of this, more than 14,000 attendees were able to recycle commingled plastics and keep them out of the landfill.

This kind of community engagement on recycling is extremely important during the holidays, a period that sees waste increase by 25% in the average household in the U.S. Local municipalities should be motivated to provide easy-to-use recycling infrastructure to its residents to help deal with food waste, wrapping paper, ribbons, product packaging, and all the other excess waste generated during the holiday season.

Waste360: What are impacts of food waste and what are ways to deal with it during winter festivities?

Rutherford: In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the EPA set a goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030, but the country has made little progress. One report found that 58% of methane emissions from landfills come from food waste, a major issue because methane is responsible for about a quarter of global warming and has significantly more warming potential than carbon dioxide.

Eliminating all types of waste isn’t realistic, and it can also be especially challenging for people to maintain during the holidays with the influx of wasted materials, particularly food and packaging. We’re surrounded by plastic waste and other organic materials that go to waste daily, so it’s important that people are given specific, tangible ways they can make an immediate difference in their household. For example, Brightmark has created a guide for anyone who wishes to begin a zero-waste journey, including how to compost, and other practical tips on how to live more sustainably. Other ways regional recycling centers can promote sustainability and food waste reduction is by implementing strategies like the EPA’s Food: Too Good to Waste (FTGTW) toolkit that teaches folks how to keep food out of landfills and money in their pockets.

For more information on how to cut down on waste during this holiday season, check out Brightmark’s ‘Tis the Season for Less Waste blog post.