Holidays Bring Extra Waste

By Christopher Rosacker
Staff Writer 

A festive holiday season can bring families together in picturesque settings, often with lots of food and gifts to exchange. 

But all this travel and extra activity produces a lot of waste.

“We see more trash because people come in for the holidays and people are cooking more,” said Daria Kent, a recycling technician at the McCourtney Road Transfer Center.

Grass Valley and Nevada City dump trucks picked up three tons more waste on the Monday and Tuesday following Christmas than on those same days' averages during the rest of the year, reported Waste Management spokesman Justin Caporusso.

On Dec. 12, Waste Management collected around 40 tons of garbage locally, but collected 59 tons two weeks later on the Monday after Christmas, Caporusso said. 

Nationwide, Americans throw away 25 percent more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's as compared to any other time of the year, according to Waste Management. Traditionally, the extra waste amounts to about 1.2 million extra tons per week — or an extra 6 million tons during the entire holiday season.

Although waste collection services see more waste on their routes, landfills don't necessarily see the spike. 

Last year, approximately 945 tons of solid waste material was deposited in the week prior to Christmas at the McCourtney Road Transfer Center, according Bob Elder, operations manager of the western Nevada County landfill. 

Although that number is 45 tons more than the typical 900-ton weekly average, Christmas week sees a drop in disposal of waste, Elder said. Last year's Christmas week only saw 697 tons deposited at the landfill, followed by 850 tons the subsequent week.

“Weather dictates a lot of people's dropping off,” Elder said, adding that many who generally deposit waste at the landfill may travel, or don't work during the week between Christmas and New Year's. 

Elder said this year's December total numbers are not yet tabulated and were not available Friday, but he doesn't anticipate them to deviate from the norm.

While regular solid waste may not be so heavy during the weeks people typically celebrate the December holidays, recyclable drop offs do spike, Elder reported.

For the month of December 2010, 1,347 ton of recyclables were brought to the McCourtney Road Transfer Center, where as October of that same year only totaled 1,108 tons, Elder reported. 

“It's really mostly about packaging material, cardboard and Styrofoam,” Kent said.

On Dec. 12 and 13, Waste Management collected 91 tons of recyclables, which jumped to 96 tons on Dec. 26 and 27, Caporusso said.

“This is the third year we have not bought any Christmas wrapping supplies,” wrote Nevada City resident Ann Hobbs in a note to The Union. “We continue to re-use both paper (in good shape), ribbon, bows and make our tags out of Christmas cards. It's not a big savings, but it isn't as if its single use makes it unusable or dirty.”

Another seasonal spike is the legal disposal of pharmaceuticals at safety bins at places such as the Grass Valley Police Department and Kmart, Kent said. 

“People are lightening their load for the first of year,” Kent said. “There just seems to be more awareness of it heading into the New Year.”

To contact Staff Writer Christopher Rosacker, e-mail [email protected] or call (530) 477-4236.  
Article from: http://www.theunion.com/article/20120102/BREAKINGNEWS/120109990/1001&parentprofile=1053