Port St. Lucie - Friday December 15, 2023: As garbage carts brim from leftovers, cardboard boxes, catalogs, and junk mail, the City of Port St. Lucie is encouraging residents to prioritize recycling. In an effort to remind residents of the importance recycling, the City is introducing “Jingle Carts”, an initiative to encourage responsible recycling.
From presents to parties, a wealth of material can be recycled.
Residents, local businesses, and community organizations can help make the process more efficient by ensuring they are putting the correct items into the right cart. While most items may be reusable materials, some items are not accepted. The challenge to divert tons of valuable recycling items away from the landfill by following 12 do’s and dont's tailored explicitly for the holiday season:
Gift wrapping materials
· Do Recycle: Residents can recycle paper gift wrapping, tissue paper and greeting cards.
· Don’t Recycle: Bows, glitter, ribbons, cellophane, and foil gift wrapping are not recyclable, especially those items with wire mesh.
Product packaging
· Do Recycle: Gift boxes, wrapping paper, and paper packaging are recyclable. Residents must remove the tape, ribbons, and other decorations before tossing items into their recycling cart.
· Don’t Recycle: Air pillow packing materials, bubble mailing envelopes, Styrofoam, and bubble wrap are household waste.
Decorations
· Do Recycle: Pack up holiday decorations for reuse next year.
· Don’t Recycle: Ornaments, garland, tinsel, or strings of lights are considered household waste.
Christmas trees
· Do Recycle: Recycle your Christmas tree and place it curbside on your weekly yard waste collection day. Remove the lights, tinsel, ornaments, and tree stands. The tree will get mulched rather than disposed of at the landfill.
· Don’t Recycle: Don’t put your Christmas tree in a plastic bag.
Going Green
· Do Recycle: Empty and scrape out food or material from all bottles, jars, containers, and cans before putting them in the recycling bin. If it’s impossible to remove all the food debris, such as peanut butter, it’s better to throw it away in the trash rather than contaminate the recycling stream.
· Don’t Recycle: Loose, plastic grocery or department store bags or plastic film gets jammed in the recycle processing equipment and can shut down the entire line until it’s removed. Most grocery chains provide collection bins for these plastic bags and wraps.
Holiday Cooking
· Do Recycle: Foil baking cookware, pie plates, and cookie sheets can be recycled. Rinse off tiny bits of food, like cookie crumbs and fruit or vegetable juice, before putting them in the bin.
· Don’t Recycle: Wax paper, butcher paper, milk, eggnog, juice cartons, etc., and biscuit dough tubes are not recyclable because of a waxy coating on the paperboard.
Remember the Golden Rule of Recycling: When in Doubt, Throw it Out!
For more details on Jingle Carts, visit www.CityofPSL.com/SolidWaste.