Holiday Planning
Planning ahead and sharing expectations with residents before they are looking to discard items can help prevent chaos. Here's a quick holiday checklist:
Trees Make arrangements with your garbage company or find a local scout troop or other organization to recycle real trees (for a fee). Be sure to communicate to residents where they should place their discarded trees and when. (Flocked trees must go in the garbage.)
Reuse Many holiday items can be reused year after year, which not only saves resources, but also money. Gift bags, bows, ribbons, and even gift tags can be reused, so rather than tossing them, set them aside and store them for next year.
Recycling* Make sure your holiday items make it into the correct bin. Common recycling items include: boxes (flattened), wrapping and tissue paper (no glitter, non-metalic), cards (no glitter, no singing cards), and metal popcorn/cookie tins.
Garbage* To protect our recycling system and keep costs down, these holiday items belong in the trash: candy wrappers, plastic bags/wrap (can be taken back to grocery stores for recycling), hard plastic packaging, ribbons/bows, metallic/glitter gift wrap, cards with glitter, string lights (some recycling drop-off locations exist) and artificial trees.
Gift Giving Experiences can be a great alternative to "stuff," create lasting memories, and drastically cut down on waste (garbage and recycling). Rather than brand new, consider finding a gently-used alternative online or at a thrift store and/or make the gift wrap part of the gift (e.g. wrap the gift in a kitchen towel).
*If garbage and recycling bins regularly overflow during the holidays, property managers may want to consider scheduling an extra pickup (for a fee).
