During the holiday season, the average American family disposes of 25% more trash than they usually do, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By reducing holiday trash, families can save money on “Pay As You Throw” town trash stickers or bags, reduce carbon and methane emissions, and protect the environment.

Recycling yes/no

According to the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District, items that can be recycled include wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, and paper greeting cards/envelopes that do not contain metallic inks, glitter or foil. Tape and labels can stay. Residents must remove batteries from singing greeting cards before recycling them.

Other recyclable paper items include catalogs, calendars, paper shopping bags and cardboard (corrugated and paperboard). When opening gifts, residents are advised to keep a paper bag handy to collect paper recyclables.

Items that cannot be recycled include ribbons, bows, tinsel, glossy photo cards, holiday light strings, Christmas tree netting, bubble wrap, paper envelopes lined with bubble wrap, packing peanuts, Styrofoam in any form, plastic shipping envelopes, or formed plastic used to package toys, electronics, etc.

Recyclables from Franklin County towns are processed at the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility. For recycling guides, visit springfieldmrf.org and click on “What’s Recyclable.”

Options for other materials

Holiday light strings and power cords are accepted for recycling at scrap metal dealers and in the scrap metal dumpsters at town transfer stations. In addition, mail-in programs are available at holidayleds.com and christmas-light-source.com.

According to the waste management district, packing and shipping stores — for example, the UPS Store in Greenfield — accept clean, dry packing materials such as bubble wrap, packing peanuts and inflatable “air pillow” packaging for reuse. Plastic bag recycling programs at grocery and retail stores also accept bubble wrap, plastic shipping envelopes, air pillow packaging, and other bags/films marked 2 or 4. A list of acceptable items is available at plasticfilmrecycling.org.

Creative reuse

In addition to recycling, the waste management district suggests wrapping gifts in reused materials. Gifts can be wrapped in reused wrapping paper, old calendar pages, sheet music, maps or map book pages, paper bags, old posters, wallpaper scraps, fabric, scarves, newspaper, comics or children’s artwork. Gifts can also be wrapped in cloth bags, reusable decorative tins, reusable shopping bags or baskets.

An important steps for reusing materials is unwrapping gifts carefully and saving materials for reuse next year.

Compost

Another way to reduce holiday trash is to compost food and paper waste from holiday meals. The waste management district advises that food scraps might seem small, but they add up: 28% of the residential trash in Massachusetts is compostable material, according to data from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Municipal composting programs accept all types of food waste, including meat, bones and cheese, plus paper waste such as napkins, paper towels and more. The following Franklin County transfer stations have composting programs: Bernardston, Charlemont, Conway, Deerfield, Greenfield (open to non-residents for a $5 fee), Leverett, Montague, New Salem, Northfield, Orange, Shelburne, Warwick, Wendell and Whately. An access permit or entrance fee may be required.

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