BOISE, Idaho — The holiday season is full of gifts, shopping, online orders and plenty of wrapping paper, boxes and ribbon. But all that festive gift giving generates a lot of trash and most of it shouldn't end up in your recycling bin.
Boise’s “Curb It” team says residents create significantly more waste during the holidays.
“Boiseans create about 20-25% more waste during the holiday season, so from Thanksgiving to New Year’s we’re creating a lot more waste,” said Gabe Brenner, who helps manage the city’s trash. “We’re just getting and consuming so much more material.”
WATCH| See what holiday materials can be recycled and what gets thrown away
Every package comes in a box or plastic mailer and every new toy adds more packaging too. Then there’s shiny wrapping paper, glitter-covered gift bags and decorative bows — much of which ends up in the trash.
Brenner says some of that material can be recycled — but only certain types.
“Your traditional gift wrap something that’s not shiny, doesn’t have any glitter on it doesn’t have any plastic streamers on it that can go into your recycling bin,” he said.
Cardboard boxes can also be broken down and recycled along with tissue paper. But items like bows and decorative gift bags (most of which have a plastic coating) can’t — though some residents do toss those items in their recycling bins anyways.
“We actually call it wish-cycling, it’s putting something into your recycling bin that you think is recyclable, but actually isn’t,” Brenner said.
He also explained that when regular recycling is put inside plastic trash bags, the whole bag is thrown away at the facility instead of being recycled. Workers don't tear open the bags to see if it is trash or recyclable materials — it is best to put your recyclables loose in the can.
“When in doubt throw it out. It’s OK to put something into the trash instead of wish-cycling and putting it into the recycling when it’s not supposed to be there,” he said.
Some materials like bubble wrap, plastic poly-mailers and foam packaging are harder to recycle. But they can still be kept out of the landfill by placing them into special orange Hefty ReNew bags before sending them to the recycling center.
If you end up getting something bulky for Christmas, like a new appliance, Boise residents get 8 free large item pick-ups per year from Republic Services.
You can find the city of Boise's Curb It sorting guide here.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
