FA LA LA LA LANDFILL
What happens to all of those holiday wrappings and frills once the new year rolls around? PHOTOS BY KAORI FUNAHASHI
O
f all the nostalgic images that illustrate the holiday season—lights and puppies and families huddled around the fire in cheesy sweaters, mugs of hot cocoa safely in hand—there is one sight that’s generated much discussion about our civilization’s consumption habits in the 21st century: post-holiday waste. What do we do with all the leftover and unwanted stuff? What becomes of the old in “out with the old, in with the new?” Every year, waste collectors and processing facilities see an influx in material that’s thrown out after the holidays. The blue bins are filled with
crinkled bunches of wrapping paper to be recycled and an assortment of plastic things that may or may not actually be recyclable. Dried-up Christmas trees may be left on the curb beside the bins, or cut up and stuffed into the green waste container. And then there’s all the garbage. We at New Times thought we’d see what the post-holiday waste stream looked like from the back end: the places where the unwanted detritus of holidays now over is made to disappear. ∆ Send comments to the managing editor at aschwellenbach@newtimesslo.com.