WESTFIELD—Now that the gift-giving and holiday season has mostly passed, you may find yourself needing to get rid of a Christmas tree or gift packaging.
But where can you get rid of it and what can you do with it all?
According to the Westfield Department of Health Director Joe Rouse, the city will take a number of items for recycling from your holiday packaging. However, the city will no longer be picking up Christmas trees according to their website, and instead will have designated areas throughout the city where residents can bring them for proper disposal.
“The things you can recycle are vast,” Rouse said.
Joe Rouse, Westfield director of public health
However, you must be careful what is recycled.
The city’s recyclable material, which the city does as “single stream,” goes to the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), known colloquially as “the Murph,” which is located in Springfield. The facility is a Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) owned and operated facility, Rouse said, and the MassDEP sends out a list every year that clarifies what is accepted at the MRF.
The full list of items can be found at the website for “the Murph” at www.springfieldmrf.org of what is and is not recyclable, but some items are as follows, according to Rouse.
What can be recycled at the MRF:
-Cardboard and paper boxes
-Paper gift bags with any handle type
-Giftwrap and tissue paper, though no foil or metallic per the MRF website
What cannot be recycled at the MRF:
-Plastic bags
-Tinsel
-Ribbons
-Styrofoam
According to Rouse, some of the items that cannot be recycled, such as tinsel and ribbons, can get tangled in equipment. In addition, items that cannot be recycled may not be able to be processed at the facility.
However, if you have Styrofoam that you want to recycle and not throw in the trash, Rouse said that the city does have an ability for you to do so.
Rouse said that the city has found a company in Ludlow that will recycle bulky Styrofoam and white packing peanuts. In order for this to be recycled, residents are asked to bring this to the Twiss Street Transfer Station in Westfield, where it can be brought for recycling with no charge.
“If they want to throw it away they can, it’s not banned,” Rouse said. “But otherwise bring it to Twiss Street.
According to Rouse, in order to recycle this packing material there is a specialized process, which includes densifying and compacting the material.
Rouse said that although the city pays for items that will be recycled to be hauled away, the city does actually get paid for its recycling. The 2016 single stream rates, Rouse said, ranged from $1.65 to $4.40 per ton that was paid to the city.
Christmas tree disposal
Regarding Christmas trees, the Department of Public Works (DPW) has gotten away from curbside pick-up of the conifers, but have set up four locations in the city where the trees can be dropped off without a fee.
The locations that trees can be brought 24 hours a day, seven days a week, are as follows:
-City Hall back parking lot on Court Street
-Hampton Ponds Playground on Old Stage Road
-Little River Road Fire Station back parking area on Little River Road
Other locations include the DPW’s Highway Garage on Ponders Hollow Road from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the Twiss Street Transfer Station on Twiss Street from 7 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
All locations will allow drop off from Dec. 26, 2017 until Jan. 31, 2018.
According to Fran Cain, Assistant Director of the Westfield DPW, the trees will be put through a woodchipper at the pickup sites at various times throughout the season, and these chips may be repurposed.
Cain said that the reason the city has gotten away from the tree pickup was due to inefficiency of the process and the financial costs associated with it, such as overtime and use of emergency funds. In addition, safety can be a concern, especially when snow piles up.
“One person was injured last year trying to get a tree out of a snowbank,” Cain said. “It’s a logistic nightmare getting trees.”
According to Cain, the city picked up an estimated 1,800 to 2,000 trees last season, and the effort “took a solid three months.”
