Oneida and Herkimer County residents generated over 44,000 tons of waste and 10,000 tons of recycling during the 2023 holiday season. For the 2024 holiday season, let’s try to decrease our waste and increase our recycling! Here are some reminders and tips on how to dispose of the most common holiday items.
Wrapping Paper – Wrapping paper is only accepted for recycling for the two weeks after Christmas. Recycling mills anticipate that there is going to be a large amount of wrapping paper this time of year and accept it for recycling so it is not all landfilled. To recycle your wrapping paper, please fold and place it in your recycling bin with the rest of your loose, mixed recyclables. Do not place it in a bag or tie it together with string. Foil wrapping paper, metallic wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbons and bows are not recyclable and should be placed in your garbage when you are no longer able to reuse them.
Gift Bags – Plain paper gift bags are accepted for recycling. Gift bags with different layers or gift bags decorated with ribbons, glitter and foil and not accepted for recycling. Please reuse these items or place them in your garbage for disposal. Greeting cards and envelopes are accepted for recycling, just be sure to remove any gifts that could be inside before placing them in your recycling bin!
Decorations – Always try to reuse or donate decorations before throwing them away! String lights are a common tangler that we see a lot at the recycling center. Please do not place these items in your recycling bin. String lights and other light up or blow up decorations are accepted year-round at the Authority’s Utica and Rome EcoDrop facilities. The Central New York Veteran’s Outreach Center located at 726 Washington Street in Utica accepts string lights for recycling as well. Wreaths, garlands and artificial Christmas trees are not accepted for recycling and should be disposed of as garbage.
Christmas Trees – Live Christmas trees are able to be composted. You can give this a try on your own or bring your tree to the Authority’s Utica EcoDrop, where it will be ground up and be made into next year’s compost! Check with your municipality or waste hauler to see if or when they will be offering curbside collection.
Collection Schedule Changes – For the Villages of Ilion, Mohawk, Dolgeville and Herkimer, collection on 12/25 and 1/1 will be pushed back one day. Wednesday collection will be on Thursday, Thursday Collection will be on Friday, and Friday collection will be on Saturday. For the City of Utica there will be no changes in collection. For any other locations, please contact your municipality or waste hauler directly to find out if there are any schedule changes.
All Authority facilities will be closed on Christmas Day, Wednesday 12/25/24 and on New Year’s Day, Wednesday 1/1/2025.
For guidance on the proper disposal of other holiday related items, please contact the Authority at 315-733-1224 or ohswa@ohswa.org. The Authority can also be reached on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.