Oregon Public Broadcasting

If you’re still digging out from under a pile of wrapping paper and gift boxes, recycling authorities say what you can’t have recycled, you should re-use. Rob Manning has more.

Most gift-wrap is really just paper, and it’s okay to put in your recycle bin along with your old newspapers. But if it has metallic or plastic linings or coatings, the only alternative to a landfill is keeping it for next year.

Judy Miller is the head of the recycling information center at Metro.

Judy Miller: “Reuse is actually higher up the hierarchy than recycling, so reuse – you can certainly reuse boxes, gift bags, bows. If you aren’t going to reuse those things, the rule of thumb is if it’s 100 percent paper, you can recycle it.”

Miller says Metro has already seen an increase in recycling – and garbage – as people have been tossing the big advertising sections from recent newspapers.

Many areas that have curbside collection will also pick up discarded Christmas trees -- minus all the tinsel and ornaments. Often, those trees will wind up with yard debris processors where they’re turned into wood chips for area parks or churches.