As we kick-off the holidays, it’s important to keep the environment in mind. Whether you’re attending holiday parties or shopping for presents, here’s a list of ways to be more eco-friendly this season.

Choose Reusable

• Choose items that can be reused over and over as opposed to single-use plastics. If you’re hosting a holiday party, use real dishes and cutlery. It may take longer to clean-up, but you’re doing the environment a favour in the long-run. You can also use real baking dishes when baking hot foods instead of using aluminum foil pie plates and trays, which are single-use.

Excess Packaging

• There is going to be a lot of packaging over the holiday season. To start, recycle the accepted materials in the blue bin. Our recycling guides are available to download and print if you need a refresher.
• When it comes to wrapping your gifts, think of a reusable option to cut back on waste. Wrapping paper and cellophane are not accepted in your blue bin. Try wrapping your gifts in a recyclable option, such as newspaper or craft paper. Or put your gifts in a reusable bag that they can use in the future.

Holiday Decorations

• If you’re decorating your home for the holidays, reuse decorations from previous years instead of buying new ones. If you are purchasing decorations, look at a thrift store for gently used items. You might be able to find something unique!

Christmas Tree Recycling

• Many municipalities offer a Christmas tree recycling program for their residents. If you have a real tree, bring it to your local depot for recycling. Reach out to your local municipality for details.

Here’s a list of common items that you’ll find around the holidays, and what you should do with them.

• Aluminum foil, Pie Plates and Trays: Garbage.
• Bows and Ribbon: Reuse if possible, otherwise garbage.
• Blister packaging: These are hard to open containers you’ll find consumer products in. These are accepted in your blue bin.
• Cardboard: Recycle in your blue bin. Flatten boxes to save space for other recyclables.
• Cellophane: Garbage.
• Christmas trees and Wreaths (real): Most municipalities run a Christmas tree recycling program for residents. Contact your municipality for details.
• Christmas trees and Wreaths (artificial): Reuse or donate.
• Decorations: Reuse or donate.
• Foam packaging (Styrofoam): Garbage.
• Gift bags (mesh): Reuse
• Gift bags (cloth): Reuse or donate to a secondhand store.
• Gift bags (paper): Recycle in your blue bin or reuse.
• Gift boxes: Recycle in your blue bin or reuse.
• Gift tags (paper): Recycle in your blue bin.
• Greeting cards: Recycle in your blue bin.
• Lights: Reuse or donate.
• Plastic cards (i.e. Gift cards): Garbage.
• Plastic cutlery and Plates: Garbage.
• Tinsel: Garbage.
• Wrapping paper (from a tree): This is also known as craft paper. Recycle this in your blue bin.
• Wrapping paper (with dyes, glitter or foil): Reuse if possible, otherwise garbage.

As market conditions change, what items are accepted in your blue bin can change over time. However, how you prepare your recyclables for collection should stay the same. Here’s a list of recycling do’s and don’ts.

Do: Ensure your containers are empty

• As a general rule, your containers should be empty before tossing them in the blue bin. A quick rinse is always appreciated. Doing so creates a healthier, cleaner work environment for the staff at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF.) It also lessens the chance of contaminating other materials in the blue bin and developing mold and unpleasant odours.

Don’t: Liquids and food waste

• Liquids and food waste don’t belong in your blue bin. This contaminates other clean recyclables. Dump out your liquids and dispose of leftover food before putting your containers in the recycling.

Do: Toss your items in loosely

• When putting your materials in the recycling bin, toss them in loosely. There’s no need to put your recyclables inside other containers (i.e. nesting). Doing this makes the recycling process more challenging because the optical sorters at the MRF won’t be able to sort the items correctly if they’re inside one another.

Don’t: Bag your recyclables

• Bagging your recyclables unfortunately does more harm than good. When staff at the MRF see bagged material on the belt, they immediately pull it off and it goes into the garbage. This is a safety hazard to the workers because they can’t see what’s inside the bag. Save yourself time and toss your items into the bin loosely.

Do: Check if it’s accepted

• Make sure what you’re putting in blue bin is accepted in our program, which collects residential packaging and printed paper. If you’re not sure what is accepted, you can look up items in the Recyclepedia.

Don’t: Toss in unaccepted materials

• If something isn’t accepted in your blue bin, you can donate it to a thrift store, post it for free online, or take it to a drop-off location for recycling. Items that have specific drop-off locations for recycling include electronics, tires, household hazardous waste (e.g., aerosol cans, paint cans), and more.

Whether we like it or not, summer has ended and it’s time for everyone to head back to school. It’s also a great time of year to get your household back into a routine and to introduce new habits. Here are some tips on how to make your routine more eco-friendly and how to sustain it throughout the year.

Come Prepared

• Many times we purchase single-use items because of convenience. To cut back on waste, come prepared with your own reusable items. This includes mugs, bottles and straws for your drinks and cutlery for any meals. Many schools have water fountains in their hallways for their students and staff to use.

Litter Free Lunches

• Lunchtime can produce a lot of excess waste, but there are ways to prevent that. Instead of packing lunches in single-use packaging (i.e. sandwich bags and cling wrap) put your food in reusable containers. There are lots of options for reusable containers, ranging from plastic to glass. For food that doesn’t need to be in a container, you can wrap it up in a beeswax food wrap! These may be a bit harder to find at stores, but there are lots of local makers who sell these at farmer’s markets and online. Check out our video with our local recycling superhero ‘Boss Lady’ Leanne Cater to see these wraps in action!
• Try to make your lunches ‘litter-free.’ This means no extra packaging and food going into the garbage bin. Pack your lunch in a reusable bag instead of a paper one. The reusable bag can be used more than once, and is sturdier than a paper bag. Instead of buying snacks wrapped in plastic, buy snacks in bulk to cut back on excess packaging. Healthy snacks like nuts, granola and pretzels can be bought at your local grocery store in bulk.

Use What You Have

• Before making a trip to the store to stock up on new supplies for the family, take a look around to see what items can be reused before being replaced. Most of the time, there are leftover items from last year that are still in good condition or weren’t used at all.
• Instead of going to the mall and buying clothes brand new, why not take a trip to the second-hand store and buy used? You may be able to find some unique items that no one else will have!
• If your family has outgrown old clothes or sports equipment, don’t forget to donate it to a local second-hand store or charity.

Green Transportation

• If your child’s school is within walking distance, encourage them to spend some time outside and walk to school while the weather is still nice. Ask them to walk with a group of friends so there’s safety in numbers.
• During the winter, or if your child’s school is too far away, ask around the neighbourhood to see if there is a carpool to save money on gas.
• If you pick up your child from school turn off your vehicle while waiting. Idling your vehicle contributes harmful emissions to the atmosphere, while also wasting gas.

Be Proactive!

• Familiarize yourself with what items can and can’t go into your blue bin. If your child is learning about recycling in school, being proactive about it in the home will help teach them as well. Visit the Recyclepedia or download a recycling guide to post on your fridge!
• Start a compost for food scraps at home. Composting is a great way to give nutrients back into our gardens and give our food scraps a second purpose.
• Does your child’s school have a recycling or a compost program in place? If not, ask their teachers if it’s possible to start one! Recycling happens in more places than just the home.
• If your child has a passion for recycling and the environment, get them to participate in their school’s environmental team! If there isn’t one in place, encourage your kids to talk to their teachers and see if it’s possible to start one up!

Whether you like to plant flowers, vegetables, or herbs, or work on projects in the yard, summer season is in full swing. But what do you do with the extra plastic and packaging once you’re done setting everything up? Here’s a list of items commonly used in the yard and how you can recycle them in Manitoba.

Where to recycle building materials

Once you’re finished making your back yard beautiful, Habitat for Humanity will accept some building materials for donation. For more details, visit their website. You can also drop off certain building materials at any of Winnipeg’s 4R Depots.

If you live in Brandon, there are drop-off locations specifically for building materials at the Eastview Landfill. For more information, please visit their website. Building materials such as bricks and concrete tiles will be reused for road repair and construction.

If you live elsewhere in Manitoba, contact your local waste department to find out what options are available in the area.

Where to recycle ceramics

Ceramics such as garden decorations and plant pots are not accepted in your blue bin. You can donate your unwanted ceramics to a local second-hand store. The 4R Winnipeg Depots will also accept ceramics for recycling at any of their locations. The ceramics will be crushed and reused for roads and pads at Brady Resource Management Facility.

Where to recycle garden hoses

These aren’t accepted in your blue bin for recycling, as they get tangled up in the machinery and can cause delays at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF.) Donate hoses in working condition to a thrift store. If they don’t work, try posting them online for free.

Where to recycle Household Hazardous Waste (HHW)

When sprucing up the backyard, you may use some liquids that are classified as HHW. These are products with a hazard symbol, such as pesticides, pool and hot tub cleaner, and flammable liquids. These products are not accepted in your blue bin. To safely dispose of them, visit the Product Care Recycling website to see what products they take and find a drop-off location near you.

Where to recycle paint and paint cans

Paint cans aren’t accepted in your blue bin. If you’re doing any painting this summer, Product Care Recycling will safely dispose of leftover paint and recycle the cans for you. Please do not place paint cans in your blue bin. Read more about what types of paint their program accepts, and to find a drop-off location closest to you on their website.

Where to recycle plastic plant pots and other garden waste

• Plastic plant pots are not accepted in your blue bin. However, most greenhouses and nurseries will accept them for reuse. Contact your local greenhouse or nursery to see if they will take them.  You can also donate them to a thrift store. The 4R Winnipeg Depots will accept these for recycling in their ‘Large plastics’ bins.
• Soil and rocks: residents can drop off their extra soil and rocks at any of the 4R Winnipeg Depots. The material will be reused as cover at the Brady Resource Management Facility.
• Soil and fertilizer bags: bags of any kind are not accepted in your blue bin for recycling.

Where to recycle or compost yard waste

Yard waste is not accepted in your blue bin. However, the City of Winnipeg will collect yard waste biweekly with your cart collection. Grass clippings, shrub and bush clippings, and small branches (less than 10 cm in diameter) are accepted in the paper bags. The yard waste will be composted and reused. For more details, visit their website.

For residents outside Winnipeg, there are various locations to drop off your yard waste.

• City of Brandon
• City of Portage La Prairie
• City of Selkirk
• Other Manitoba residents can contact their local waste department for options.

Before placing anything in your blue bin, it’s important to check the Recyclepedia or with your local municipality first to see what is and is not accepted. Remember that recycling happens in all areas of the home, inside and out.

Happy gardening!

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