Christmas wrapping paper should not be recycled

It can be confusing when sorting Christmas wrapping paper and holiday cards to know what to throw away, and what can be recycled.

Wrapping paper is not recyclable. The plastic coating and glitter make it unrecyclable. It needs to be thrown in the trash. Holiday cards with plastic or glitter on them are not recyclable either. Winneshiek County Recycling Director Terry Buenzow said he tested wrapping paper by running it under water and the wrapping paper turned into Saran Wrap or a gooey substance, nothing the paper mills can use.

"Paper mills go through 100 tons of paper a day, they can't know if one sheet of wrapping paper is okay or not, so they can't bother with any of it, as it wrecks the pulping process. There is too much different content like laminate and foil mixed in," shared Buenzow. "We have had an increase this year in the brown wrapping paper and newsprint being used to wrap gifts, and then recycled."

When you do recycle, make sure you are doing it properly and not making more work for the recycling center. When recycling the box a new tv came in, be sure to take out all the styrofoam and any plastic the tv comes in and recycle the box only. Throw away the styrofoam.

The holidays are a time many people declutter their homes and workplaces. For a complete list of acceptable and unacceptable materials to be recycled go to: http://www.winneshiekcounty.org/departments/recycling.

Buenzow added, "The participation we receive is unreal. For a county of 20,000 we match what a county of 80,000 brings in for recycling. On the 26th the cars were backed up in the street waiting to drop off their recyclables."

Holiday traffic at the Winneshiek County Recycling Center (photo courtesy of Terry Buenzow)