Community Corner

Tips for Reducing Holiday Waste, Making Christmas Eco-Friendly in Iowa City

Make this Christmas a little more eco friendly with tips from the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center.

Media Release

Holidays are not only a time of celebration they can also be a time for dealing with a lot of extra stuff. Here are a few things residents can do to implement a more eco-friendly holiday and avoid accumulating more items this season.

TREES

Use a real Christmas tree instead of an artificial one. According to the Curbside Value partnership, "When all aspects of the life cycle are considered, artificial trees actually have a greater negative environmental impact than real trees. Artificial trees are non-recyclable and non-biodegradable." 

Another benefit of a real tree: You don't need to find a place to store it year after year. After the holiday season is over, live trees and garland (no wires or other decorations) will be picked up from refuse and recycling curbside customers from January 7 to January 25 for composting at the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center. The landfill accepts yard waste year-round, including Christmas trees. Visit our website at www.icgov.org/landfill for more information or call 319/887-6160.

WRAPPING PAPER

Wrap gifts in materials other than wrapping paper or tissue paper. Use the funny pages, fabric, or homemade holiday bags (see www.reclaimyourholidays.org for some fun ideas), or reuse bags from past holidays. This will save trips to the store for paper and tape, and some wrappings can be used for many years! 

If you do use wrapping paper or tissue paper, please note that only some of it is recyclable. Tissue paper is NOT recyclable as the fibers are too short to be processed. Wrapping paper and holiday cards and envelopes can be recycled if they do not contain glitter or other metallic or shiny components. If you receive gifts or packages from online shopping, reuse packing peanuts when wrapping fragile presents. You can also check with local shipping stores to see if they can use them. 

LIGHTS

Residents may recycle their old, non-working holiday lights at specified containers available throughout the area until January 7. No packaging or other decorations will be accepted in these containers and just the strings of lights. The special drop-off boxes can be found at these locations: 

Iowa City:
City Carton Recycling (3 E. Benton Street)
Hy-Vee South (Waterfront Drive)
Hy-Vee East (First Avenue) 
North Dodge Hy-Vee 
ReStore (2401 Scott Blvd SE)
Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center (3900 Hebl Avenue SW)

Coralville:
Coralville City Hall (1512 7th St.)
Hy-Vee, Lantern Park Plaza (1914 8th St.)
Coralville Recreation Center (1506 8th St.)
Coralville Recycling Center (110 E. 7th St.)
Walgreens (102 2nd St.)
Walgreens (2751 Heartland Dr.)

For questions about the Iowa City locations, please contact the City of Iowa City Recycling Coordinator at 319/887-6160. For more information on Coralville locations, please call Coralville Streets and Solid Waste at 319/248-1740. 

For more ideas on simplifying the holidays, see www.reclaimyourholidays.org or the Curbside Value Program's "12 Days of Recycling" at http://www.recyclecurbside.org.


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