Following the holidays, many households are left with a surplus of trash including empty boxes and used wrapping paper. The good news is, not all that trash has to end up at a waste dump, and most of it can be recycled.
“All of those Christmas items, your wrapping paper, your boxes, your plastic, the gift bags, all of those things can be recycled,” said David Simmons with the Longview Sanitation Department.
Simmons said anything made of cardboard can also be recycled.
“Even your packaging for toys and things like that, you can put those in there,” said Simmons.
He told CBS19, in Longview, keeping items out of waste dumps is easy.
“All you have to do is put it in with your regular single stream recycling,” he said. “Here in Longview, you can just put that in and put it at the curb on your collection day.”
Simmons said you can even recycle your Christmas tree. All you have to do is make sure the tree does not have any decorations left on it.
“Starting next week, if you have a live Christmas tree, you can put that out at the curb with your normal yard waste and we will pick it up.”
If you can’t wait for your tree to picked up, or you don’t live in an area serviced by the sanitation department, you can drop your tree off at the compost site at 2020 Swinging Bridge Road.
The site is open Wednesday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Recycling is free and open to the public.
People who live in Tyler can drop their live Christmas trees off at Fun Forest Park or Golden Road Park.