Hollister
– Every year, the holidays bring towering Christmas trees,
colorful lights – and overflowing trash cans.
Hollister – Every year, the holidays bring towering Christmas trees, colorful lights – and overflowing trash cans.
After all, those wonderful gifts come bundled in wrapping paper and packaging that needs to be taken care of.
Two Hollister teenagers reported that their families are environmentally conscious when they dispose of their holiday waste. Brandon Garcia said that as the wrapping was torn from his family’s presents, they stuffed the paper into garbage bag.
“It’s one of those big, black, heavy bags,” Garcia said.
Garcia’s family eventually dragged the bag out to their recycling bin, which was filled with holiday refuse, as was their trash can.
Mitch Molchan said he had a Christmas similarly filled with paper and cardboard. And, like Garcia, he said that his family’s recycling bin was “pretty full” once all the presents had been unwrapped.
Garcia and Molchan’s post-unwrapping habits are shared by most Hollister residents, according to local waste disposal officials.
“The holidays always create a major backup,” said Ernie Chambers, president of Eagle Recycling, which handles the recycling needs of many local businesses.
Chambers said the “huge influx” of recycling lasts from Thanksgiving until the first week of January. He estimated it amounts to a 30 percent increase in recycled material.
Despite the backup – and the messy streets and yards that extra waste material can cause – Chambers said he finds the increased recycling to be “very encouraging.”
John Delgado, president of Hollister Disposal, said he couldn’t give any definite numbers, but he definitely sees a increase in trash and recycling. In fact, he noted, residents can put out an extra bag of recycling this week and it will be picked up free of charge.
However, Delgado said the holiday season used to bring a much bigger recycling spike, before his company – which performs curbside trash and recycling pickup for Hollister residents – made the process easier by consolidating the four recycling containers into one.
“In the last four years, our residents have done a lot better job of consistently recycling,” Delgado said.
But even though almost all of our Christmas staples – even trees – can be recycled, that doesn’t mean they will be.
Molchan’s family, for example, didn’t recycle their wrapping paper. Instead, they used it to fuel their roaring Christmas fire.
“It was pretty cool,” Molchan said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or ah*@fr***********.com.
