The holiday season is around the corner and many Toronto residents are thinking about gift-giving and social events. While these holiday traditions are a cherished part of the season for many residents, they often result in a large increase in the amount of waste managed by the City of Toronto, in particular single-use items such as plastic cups, cutlery, napkins and plates.
As residents prepare for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and holiday celebrations, the City encourages them to be mindful of the amount of waste they generate. Small changes to reduce waste, such as using reusable plates, cutlery and cloth napkins for a holiday event, can make a difference.
Promoting a culture of waste reduction and reuse is part of the City’s Long Term Waste Management Strategy. Reducing waste over the holidays is critical to achieve the City’s zero waste goal to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
The City offers the following tips to help residents reduce and reuse during the holidays:
• Make memories, not waste by giving the gift of an experience with tickets, classes or a getaway.
• Donate to a charity, adopt a tree or sponsor an animal on behalf of a loved one.
• Save gift wrap, ribbon and bows each year to use over and over again.
• Bring reusable bags when shopping over the holiday season to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags.
It is also important to ensure holiday waste is put in its proper place. Putting this waste in the wrong place leads to contamination in the Blue Bin (recycling), which ruins other recyclable items and makes them unacceptable for recycling.
Tips to recycle right over the holidays:
• Empty and rinse recyclables such as aluminum roasting pans and tins, plastic plates and cups before placing them in the Blue Bin (recycling).
• Paper wrap, flattened cardboard and rinsed plastic plates and plastic cups (except black plastic) also go in the Blue Bin (recycling).
• Foil/metallic wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, bubble wrap, bubble envelopes, packing peanuts (foam pellets) and fruit crates go in the garbage.
• All food scraps as well as soiled paper napkins and paper plates go in the Green Bin (organics).
More tips on managing holiday waste are available at http://www.toronto.ca/reduce-reuse. Information about how to properly dispose of holiday items is available at http://toronto.ca/wastewizard or on the new TOwaste App available at http://ow.ly/1AJT30mHUB9.
This news releases is also available on the City’s website: https://bit.ly/2SbZTB3
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