1. Recycling at Home
  2. 12 Tips to Recycle the Holidays

12 Tips to Recycle the Holidays

End-of-the-year holidays, celebrations and special occasions usually generate more trash and waste than other times of the year. These tips and tricks will help you recycle more and create a lot less trash.



Recycle Old Holiday Lights

Use energy-saving holiday lights. Decorate your house with LED lights that use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights, and save your family up to $50 on your energy bills during the holiday season!
 
When you're done with the old lights, recycle them. Until January 15, the Solid Waste District collects broken, burned out or tangled strings of holiday lights for recycling. Drop unwanted light strings, power cords and power strips at 4750 East 131 Street in Garfield Heights. Hours are Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. No bags or boxes in the recycling bin, please. Place items loose in the marked lobby drop box and take all bags, boxes and containers home with you.

Some city service departments collect lights from residents. Check with your community.
 
Sorry, we cannot accept pre-lit trees or garland. Lights must be removed from the item for proper recycling.
 
Other resources for recycling holiday lights:
  • HolidayLEDS offers free a light recycling program. You can ship lights to the company for recycling from October 1-February 28.
  • Christmas Light Source accepts holiday lights all year-round. Proceeds from this recycling program benefit the Marine Toys for Tots program.
  • Retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's and Walmart collect lights for a few weeks during the winter holidays. Check with your local store.

Learn more about recycling holiday lights.

Recycle Christmas Trees

Each year, 10 million Christmas trees end up in the landfill. While your tree won't fit in the recycling bin with your newspapers and bottles, you can still recycle your tree.

Donate your tree to a local farm for animal feed (goats love them!). If you have a private pond, lake or wooded area, place the undecorated tree in the area to serve as shelter or food for wildlife. Many cities offer programs to turn your tree into mulch or wood chips. Call your city service department or trash hauler for more information or find details for your community.

Learn more about recycling Christmas trees.

Reuse Holiday Cards

When the holidays are over, include your holiday cards in with your community’s curbside mixed paper recycling program. Do not include foil, ribbon or photo cards with the mixed paper. Cards can also be dropped off at a local mixed paper recycling bin.

Learn more about recycling paper and boxes.

Recycle Gift Wrap & Gift Boxes

Don’t forget to have your recycling container or craft paper bag handy while everyone is opening gifts! 

Wrapping paper and boxes that are 100 percent paper can be recycled. Recycle the cards and wrappings with your regular curbside mixed paper collection or take it to a local mixed paper drop-off. Plain paper, butcher paper, corrugated cardboard and gift bags without decorations can also be recycled.

If the wrapping paper has foil, or is sparkly or shiny, it cannot be recycled. Place it in the trash, Also, do not include foil, plastic coating, ribbon, tinsel, bows and glitter in recycling.

Learn more about recycling paper and boxes.

Re-Gift Unwanted Items

Donate unwanted clothes, toys, furniture, household goods, holiday decorations and other unwanted items to local nonprofit organizations that reuse or resell the items to support their work in the community. Use our What Do I Do With? search engine to see where to donate or order a copy of our Pass it On book.

[video] Learn more about donating usable stuff.

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag!)

During the nation’s busiest shopping season, bring your own shopping bags. Paper, plastic and cloth are all good; the latter two can be folded easily into purses and pockets. Or, consolidate your purchases into one bag rather than getting a new bag at each store on your shopping rounds.

Learn more about recycling plastic bags.

Recycle Cell Phones & Electronics

Getting a new cell phone this year? Each year, 130 million cell phones are thrown out -- about 65,000 tons! Drop off your old phone at any AT&T, Best Buy, Staples, Verizon, or other retail store that offers recycling services in store. 
 
Recycling phones prevents hazardous elements like mercury, cadmium and lead from ending up in our landfills.
 
Best Buy and Staples stores accept most electronics devices for recycling; you can drop off items in store for free. Other retailers also offer free electronics recycling programs throughout the year.

Learn more about recycling computers, cell phones and electronics.

Don’t Dump That Fryer Oil

Over two million folks across the country deep-fry their turkey every Thanksgiving. With three to five gallons of used oil on your hands, disposing of it isn't as easy as just putting it in the garbage. 
 
If your turkey fryer still has oil in it from the last holiday meal, drain it out and take it to your community's next household hazardous waste collection day. We're happy to accept and recycle fryer oil from Cuyahoga County households.
 
Additionally, restaurants and bars might be willing to take your fryer oil and add it in to their regular fryer oil collection. Locally, fryer oil is converted to biodiesel by Full Circle Fuels in Oberlin, Ohio​.

Learn more about recycling fryer oil.


Recycle & Reuse Styrofoam

Clean Styrofoam #6 EPS (formed packing material) can be recycled at Extreme Green Recycling in Cleveland. Residents and businesses can drop off Styrofoam blocks for free at 7615 Detour Ave in Cleveland. Hours are Monday-Friday 7:00-2:00. The material is densified into Styrofoam bricks and sold to manufacturers to be made into insulation, picture frames or crown molding. They also make Styrofoam beads that are sold to a local stuffed toy manufacturer.

Some city service departments also offer a Styrofoam drop-off for residents. Check with your community.
 
The Solid Waste District accepts white, formed blocks of Styrofoam only (no Styrofoam sheeting, peanuts, colored foam, food trays or egg cartons) at our facility at 4750 East 131 Street in Garfield Heights. A marked collection bin is located in the lobby; hours are Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Food grade Styrofoam "clamshell" containers, cups, and trays cannot be recycled here in Northeast Ohio.
 
Styrofoam peanuts from packaging can be taken to Northcoast Recycling, 1305 Lloyd Road in Wickliffe. For more information, call 440.943.6968. Packing peanuts can also be donated to a store that ship packages like the UPS stores. Or reuse it as your own packing material.
 
Drop off extra packing peanuts at local private mailing centers. Call the Plastic Loose Fill Council's Peanut Hotline at 1.800.828.2214 for the names of local businesses that reuse them. Stores often offer discounts for returning packing materials like cartons and boxes.

Learn more about recycling Styrofoam.

Recycle Rechargeable Batteries

Batteries that are rechargeable should be recycled. This includes lithium, lithium ion, nickel metal hydride, zinc air and lead acid batteries. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) provides recycling drop-off locations for rechargeable batteries at area retail stores. For a complete list of locations, call 1.800.8BATTERY or search by zip code on their website.
 
Single-use alkaline batteries cannot be recycled. Once the battery power is used up, place them in the regular trash. These batteries are classified by the federal government as non-hazardous waste. Alkaline batteries are composed primarily of common metals -- steel, zinc and manganese -- and do not pose a health or environmental risk during normal use or disposal. Cost-effective and environmentally safe recycling processes are not yet universally available for alkaline batteries.

Learn more about proper disposal of batteries.

Use (Real!) Plates and Serveware


Party time! Get out the old china dishes. Avoid using paper plates, plastic utensils, plastic cups and foil pans – none are recyclable. If you are packaging leftovers, reuse plastic containers or glass jars instead of throw-away alternatives.

Learn more about the types of plastic that can be recycled curbside.

Donate Food

Food and holiday celebrations go together like jingle and bells. Rather than throwing the excess food away, donate leftovers to a local food pantry or organization that feeds the needy.

The Cleveland Foodbank accepts food products from all types of donors including caterers and commercial entities. See their guidelines for making a food and fund drives donation or a food industry donation to the Cleveland Foodbank.

Learn more about other options for donating food.
 

Want to know more about regular curbside recycling in Cuyahoga County? See our recycling FAQs and learn how to recycle.

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