Rescue wrapping and other holiday Waste Wise ideas| Opinion
Published 2:53 pm Sunday, December 21, 2014
By Maribeth Crandell
Americans throw away 25 percent more waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than in any other season. It amounts to about 1 million extra tons per week. Think about those holiday parties, the paper plates and cups, plastic utensils, wrapping paper, Styrofoam stuffing, plastic packaging, ribbons, decorations, the food waste and the tree!
Everyone knows the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Most people focus on recycling.
Recycling is pretty easy. It makes us all feel good inside. In Island County we can take our recyclables to the recycle centers at Bayview, Freeland, Coupeville and Oak Harbor Road Recycle Centers. Curbside recycling is available in the City of Oak Harbor, the Town of Coupeville and on Camano Island for those with regular garbage pick-up.
Look carefully at the signs on the recycle bins to make sure you know what can be recycled and what cannot. What may be accepted in one town may not be accepted in another. It depends on the company that handles the waste. So please don’t contaminate good recyclable material with stuff that can’t be recycled here. Glass is not accepted in the City of Oak Harbor or in the Town of Coupeville recycle bins; however, there are places in Oak Harbor to deposit glass: Office Max, Albertson’s, the Marina, NAS Whidbey and Oak Harbor Recycle Parks, along with the County facilities. Wrapping paper can be recycled but foil paper, ribbons, bows, used paper plates and cups and Styrofoam packing cannot. The UPS Store and Pony Express in Oak Harbor and the Lavender Wind Farm in Coupeville can re-use Styrofoam peanuts.
Reuse is where people can become even more angelic. Take some of those natural resources that were just used once and give them another chance at life. Think of it as rescue wrapping. If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. If each family wrapped three presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. By reusing holiday wrapping and decorations, you save not only the original resources but all the energy it took to make that tree into wrapping paper, or that oil into plastic stuff. My mother used to press used wrapping paper under the couch cushions so it was flat and handy all year round.
Reduce is the most challenging. It takes forethought, which, I’m told, separates us from other animals. When you’re tempted to collect more stuff, think about it before you bring it home. Many of us have realized that we’re happier with less stuff. I love giving presents and supporting the local economy, but I often choose gifts of experience.
If you get a few gifts that you really don’t care to keep, our Island thrift shops may be a good place to donate them. You can dispose of electronics responsibly at the Coupeville Solid Waste Complex. Computer towers, laptops, monitors, eReaders, TVs portable DVD players that have a screen will all be accepted for free at the Recycling Center. Other electronics may be accepted by BARC, just inside the gate, for a nominal fee that benefits the Whidbey Animal Improvement Foundation.
n Maribeth Crandell is a WSU Waste Wise volunteer.
