Holiday Recycling Tips

The amount of cardboard and other recyclables increases substantially during the holidays.

Here are a few suggestions to aid the city workers in recycling cardboard.

• Breakdown your cardboard boxes whenever possible. So many residents place one or two large boxes in the toter and then throw the rest on the tree lawn. This defeats the purpose of the automated process. A city worker must pick-up the cardboard manually which is labor intensive and not economical. In addition, when you do not break down the cardboard boxes the automated truck fills-up faster. The recycling truck must drive all the way to the recycling center in Twinsburg daily. Those fuel costs add up.
• Many Lakewood residents run their businesses from home and recycle much cardboard weekly. Try to get your cardboard in the toter, but if you have an abundance, please break it down and bundle it with rope or strong string. Remember, you can always drop it off at the recycling center yourself. The hours are Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• Styrofoam is not recyclable and should be placed in the garbage toter whenever possible. If you place a cardboard box on the tree lawn and there is Styrofoam in it, the cardboard will NOT BE RECYCLED.
• If your recycling toter is not near full, you do not need to put it out weekly. This cuts down on the immense amount of labor that the city workers expel retrieving trash and recycling.
• If you place ANY type of food or food remnant in the recycling toter, you will contaminate the entire load.   Please remember that every container must be rinsed-out and no food should be placed in the container.
• Wrapping paper should be placed in the recycling toter whenever possible. If there is no room, place in box or bag and label for the city workers. Otherwise, they will think it is garbage.