North Raleigh Today

City of Raleigh issued the following announcement on Dec. 18.

Once the presents have been opened and the new year is near, you may be eager to get rid of holiday gift packaging in a hurry. However, just taking a few moments to be deliberate about your waste will help the City of Raleigh effectively recycle and decrease the amount of waste headed to the landfill.

Online shopping orders have surged in recent years, and the use of cardboard boxes increases even more during the holiday season. Once that special gift is out of the box, packing materials should be disposed of appropriately. Non-recyclable items like glitter or waxy wrapping paper, plastic bags, packing foam, and Styrofoam can be thrown away with household waste in your dark green cart. These items cannot be recycled at the Material Recovery Facilities (MRF).

Cardboard boxes should be flattened and placed loosely in your blue recycling bin. It is important to break down your boxes because it allows more to fit inside your recycling cart. It also allows more homes to receive service during a collection route and reduces delays as trucks make fewer trips to dump recyclables at the MRF. 

Proper recycling expedites the process to create new products and is a great practice to start in the new year.

Original source can be found here.