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By Justin Goulet

Reducing waste over the holidays

Dec 22, 2019 | 8:05 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Wrapping paper might seem like something you can toss in the recycling bin, but that’s not necessarily the case.

According to Raquel Burston with the City of Lethbridge’s Waste and Recycling department, wrapping paper can actually be quite wasteful.

She suggests wrapping gifts in materials like fabrics or reusable bags.

“Something to remember is that we can’t put the wrapping paper in our blue carts and the reason for that is that it’s a mixed material,” she said.

“It might seem like it’s just paper but a lot of times there’s a veneer to it, there’s sparkles, there’s all sorts of things that are going on, so it might look like paper, but it’s not actually paper so unfortunately can’t be recycled. So, if we can try some of those fun different things, like wrapping things in fabric or something like that, that will help reduce that waste.”

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She said they try to raise as much awareness as possible on the subject, but it can be tricky because on first thought, wrapping paper sounds like just any other kind of recyclable paper.

“In December, Lethbridge accumulates a lot of waste during those holidays,” Burston added, before suggesting some activities people can do over the holidays that lessen waste build-up.

“You can try and do activity-based activities, like concerts or passes to skating and things like that, those are also really fun.”

Burston said the holiday season is the Waste and Recycling department’s busiest of the year, with the first being spring-cleaning time.

The department is also notifying residents of its Christmas Tree Collection program, which is set to go on Saturday, January 11 and offers residents and eco-friendly way to recycle their Christmas tree.

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