Holiday Recycling Tips Offered for Livingston Residents

Livingston’s Recycling & Reclamation Committee offers a number of tips for recycling your holiday gift wrap and packaging, to make sure that what you put out for collection can be successfully recycled.

According to Tiffanie Nyzio of Giordano Company, Inc., Livingston’s recycling collector, “The number one recycling issue at holiday time is forgetting to remove Styrofoam inserts from cardboard boxes, since cardboard can’t be recycled with Styrofoam inside. You should remove Styrofoam and recycle the foam along with your bottles and cans.”

Gift wrapping, including papers with foil accents, can be recycled and put out with your regular newspaper and cardboard collection. Paper and cardboard packing and molded package inserts formed from brown paper can also be recycled with newspaper.

Cardboard boxes with clear plastic windows can be recycled if residents remove the plastic window. Boxes that are waxed or laminated are not recyclable.

Items that cannot be recycled include shredded paper or decorative ‘crinkle cut’ package fillers, as well as any plastic items smaller than a golf ball. These items should be put in regular trash, as they get caught in recycling plant conveyor belts.

Residents can help avoid similar issues caused by loose plastic bags by tying several bags into a bundle or tucking a few bags inside each other for recycling.

Recycling pickups will be on your regular schedule during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s, with Monday pickups taking place as normally planned. Visit livingstonnj.org for more information about recycling in Livingston.

As always, remember to put plastic, glass and cans out for collection in a clear bag or loose in an open container. Do not use black bags or cardboard boxes to put out your commingled items.

Residents with questions should call the Township Clerk at (973) 992-5000 ext. #5405.