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Recycling The Holidays

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By PAUL CATALA pcatala@mediageneral.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2008

The presents have been torn into, the boxes opened, the Christmas tree left bare and the strings of burned-out, outdoor lights taken down and bundled up into a tangled ball.

The easiest thing to do with the holiday rubbish and celebratory byproducts is to just toss them into the trash and it's "out of sight, out of mind."

But for those in the FishHawk Ranch area - and folks from other parts of Hillsborough County - who want to help the environment by lessening holiday load in county landfills, there are ways to recycle what's left over from all the fun.

In FishHawk Ranch, holiday garbage collection and recycling follows county guidelines and scheduling.

As far as what's left over from Christmas morning and Hanukkah, there are three items that can go directly into the county's blue recycling bins.

According to James Ransom, community relations coordinator for the Solid Waste Management Department, paper holiday cards with minimal or no glitter, shipping boxes and paper tags without adhesive tape can go into the bins, along with other standard recyclables.

However, Ransom noted items that can't be put in, include wrapping paper, due to dyes and foil; paper plates and napkins, due to residual food and oil on them; and store gift boxes, Christmas and holiday lights and any kind of tinsel.

The live trees that stand over holiday presents can go out on regular yard waste days, said Ransom. The county mulches the tree and offers it for sale to the public or uses it for compost and he said they should have as much tinsel removed as possible and free of sprayed-on, fake snow.

"This is a unique time of year for recycling," said Ransom. "We encourage customers to take the time to recycle their items and continue doing so not only around the holidays, but throughout the rest of the year," he said.

As for those pesky Styrofoam packing peanuts that come out of boxes, they can be kept out of the landfill, too.

Once they're collected, two area locations will accept and recycle them.

Pak Mail, 2420 W. Brandon Blvd., is the closest locale to FishHawk Ranch and has been accepting packing peanuts, air bags and packing plastic bubble wrap for recycling for 11 years.

Glenn Walton, Pak Mail owner, said as long as the Styrofoam and bags are clean, there is no limit as to how many can be brought in. In addition, he said his company is involved with "Cell Phones for Soldiers," a program that takes the minute gold pieces in phones and sells them for 60-minute phone cards, sent to active military overseas.

"We just want to recycle these things that take years and years to break down," said Walton.

Lastly, those strings of dead lights also can have another life through an out-of-state company.

HolidayLEDS Christmas lights in Jackson, Miss., offers a program in which homeowners can send in non-working strands of Christmas lights. The strings are ground up and the all components are separated and reused for new lights.

What's more, the company will send participants a 15 percent off coupon to buy new lights from their Web site, www.holidayleds.com.

To participate, HolidayLEDS Sales Manager Terry Anderson said to put lights into cardboard boxes or other packaging that can be recycled. He suggested coordinating with friends and family to collect lights into one bulk shipment to reduce shipping costs and compact lights into the smallest possible space, without any packing.

The package, with the name and e-mail address of the participant included inside, should be sent to HolidayLEDS, Attn: Recycling Program, 2500 W. Argyle St., Jackson, Ms. 49202.

Like other recycling participants, Anderson said the goal is to alleviate unnecessarily adding waste to dumps.

"This is a good way to replace your lights and this is better than just throwing them away and filling up landfills with products that can be recycled," he said.

HOLIDAY TRASH COLLECTION:

•No regular trash pick-up Dec. 25 or Jan. 1

•The next trash and yard waste pick-up will be Dec. 29 and Jan. 5

•Recyclables will be picked up Jan. 8

•The county asks resident not to put out rubbish, yard waste or recyclables until the designated pick-up days.

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