The holiday season is in full swing. Many are enjoying dinner parties, wrapping gifts for loved ones, and decorating their home. At the end of this festive season, there is a whole lot of trash to deal with.
Here are some quick tips to better manage your holiday waste.
- Reducing holiday waste can take some planning. Give an experience, tickets to the Lebanon Opera House, gift certificates to the movies, or maybe something like a message. Gifts like this create very little waste.
- Reusing waste can be fun. Wrapping gifts with newspaper or with a reusable shopping bag extends the life of something. Think through your gift-giving and consider how you or the one receiving the gift can reuse the wrapping.
- If a gift requires batteries; consider getting rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries last longer, use fewer resources, and are recyclable.
- Recycling is something we all understand. At this time of year, there are some tricky tips to remember. When recycling paper, be sure to remove ribbons and bows. If you are dropping off your Christmas tree or wreath, please remove the lights, ornaments, and stand. For more information about recycling in Lebanon, please check our What Goes Where page.
- Food scraps are a large part of holiday waste. Before the dinner plates have been scraped clean, consider getting a food scrap permit at the Lebanon Solid Waste Facility. Here in Lebanon, we will compost your food scraps to divert from disposal in the landfill.
After you have reduced, reused, and recycled (and now composted); there should be much less waste to throw out in the trash. This year, the Lebanon Solid Waste Facility will be open on both Christmas Eve and News Year Eve until 12:00 NOON.
If you have questions, please check out our Holiday Information page to learn more about how to recycle your holiday tree, which types of wrapping paper are recyclable, and more. You can also email me (Marc Morgan, Solid Waste Manager) at marc.morgan@lebanonnh.gov.
Thank you all for a wonderful 2021 and we look forward to 2022. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.