Christmas cleanup begins

St. Albert's old Christmas trees will be fire-free for the first time in years this winter now that the city has brought back its Christmas composting program.

City residents will be able to drop their old Christmas trees off at the recycling depot starting next week, according to Darrell Symbaluk of St. Albert's Public Works Department. The yard will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Crews will also roam the streets from Jan. 11 to 22 to collect any trees left at the curb.

For the first time since 2004, staff will mulch and compost those trees instead of lighting them on fire. Christmas trees are often imported, so the city started burning them in 2004 to prevent them from introducing foreign bugs.

Provincial officials have since assured the city that there's no bug risk, Symbaluk says, so they've brought back composting. "There's no risk to mulching them up." Residents can also take their trees to the compost yard directly, he adds.

Morinville residents should have their old trees ready for pickup and composting on January 11, says Claude Valcourt, the town's director of public works. The town had thought about eliminating this service earlier when it contracted out its waste collection but decided to keep it. "We don't expect a lot of Christmas trees," he says, as most residents use artificial ones.

Use those blue bags

St. Albert and Morinville resident can put much of the rest of their trash into their blue recycling bags.

Collectors usually see two to three times as many recyclables at the curb after Christmas, says Lorenzo Donini, spokesperson for Ever Green Ecological Services, the company that does St. Albert's curbside recycling. "This is our busiest time of the whole year."

He expects he'll need extra trucks to carry the load. "Christmas is far from being a holiday for us."

Make sure to stomp your cardboard flat and bind it for pickup crews, Donini adds. "Remember, the guys are going to pick up 800 homes worth of this stuff," he says, and it's tough for them to handle mounds of unbound, un-collapsed material.

And remember to put it in a blue bag — not a clear one or a blue box. "That way the material is protected from snow, wind and rain and the operators know exactly what to pick," Donini says. Blue boxes also tend to crack in cold weather, he adds, while clear bags split under pressure.

Less waste means less clean-up

A recent Ipsos Reid study found that about a quarter of Canadian families would spend an hour cleaning up their homes after Christmas, with about four per cent spending up to three hours. About 74 per cent clean for half an hour.

Valcourt has a simple tip for those looking to speed up their post-Christmas cleanup: "Recycle, recycle, recycle!"

Both Morinville and St. Albert have curbside recycling programs that will take everything but thin plastics, Styrofoam, food, unwashed food containers, toys, bubble wrap, ceramics, wood, coloured glass or electronics.

Pre-planning can also help cut back on Christmas waste, Donini says. "There's a heavy environmental cost to food," he says, and one way to reduce it is to find out what dishes your guests want before you start cooking. A huge spread might look impressive, he says, but it also makes a lot of waste.

Steer away from fancy wraps for your gifts as well. "Almost all the extra [trash] volume is in extra packaging," Donini says, including ribbons and fancy papers. He uses old newspapers for his gifts and avoids buying gifts that have lots of packaging.

Any St. Albert trash questions should go to public works at 780-460-1557. Morinville residents should call 780-939-2590.