To your trash collectors, memories of the holiday season are fresh in their minds, and in their hands, and up and down the boulevards.

        They're right there in the mountains of packaging that protected presents in the mail. In the wrappings and ribbons that made them pretty. In the trees that sprinkled needles on them. They're in the throw-away New Year's Eve party decorations and favors and utensils that made get-togethers a little more festive.

Between Thanksgiving and New Yearıs Day, trash watchers say, Americans leave some 25 percent more trash for collectors. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        These symbols of the season mean 25 percent more solid waste at the curb. That's an additional 5 million tons nationally.

        Compared with normal collection days, Americans add one garbage can for every four between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, environmentalists say.

        “That's about right,” says Diana Frey, spokeswoman for Cincinnati's Department of Public Services, which oversees waste collection. “Especially the week after Christmas. That has the largest impact.”

        And the tides of trash keep rolling toward the streets, as we continue the de-decoration process.

Mail carriers' burden
        Your trash collector isn't the only one to bear the burden of yuletide excess.

TO LEARN MORE

For information on solid waste and how to control it, call the National Recycling Coalition at (703) 683-9025, Ext. 225.

TREE TRASH

If you live in the city of Cincinnati, getting rid of what was formerly known as the prettiest fir on the lot is simple. Just drag it to the street curb on your regular trash-collection day — through Friday, Jan. 12. After that, call 591-6000 to schedule pickup.     Most suburbs offer similar tree-collection and recycling programs. Call your respective municipal offices for details.     Hamilton County residents who are not served by tree recycling programs can deliver trees to:     • Evans Landscaping, 3700 Round Bottom Road, Newtown.     • Kuliga Park, 6717 Bridgetown Road, Green Township.     • Rumpke Sanitary Landfill, Struble Road and Colerain Avenue, Colerain Township. Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Jan. 13.     In Boone County, take your trees to the curb by 8 a.m. Wednesday or to:     • Flick's Foods, Burlington, until 10 a.m. Jan. 13     • Ewing Boulevard at Kentucky 18, Florence, by noon Jan. 13     • Ryle High School, Union, by 2 p.m. Jan. 13     • Walton Park, by 4 p.m. Jan. 13         In Campbell County, take trees to:     • Newport City Garage, through Jan. 12     • Riverside Park, Dayton, through Jan. 12     • Southgate Civic Center, through Jan. 15     • Highland Heights Civic Center, through Jan. 16     • Alexandria City Building, through Jan. 14     • Morscher Field, Silver Grove, through Jan. 16.         Hours: 8 a.m.-4 p.m.     In all cases, ornaments must be removed.     For more information, call the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services, at 946-7755; the Boone County Public Works Department, at (859) 334-3600; the Campbell County Judge Executive's office, at 292-3838; or other local administrators.         And you can always chip and compost in your back yard to enrich soil, reduce weeds and help retain moisture.     Or if you have a large lot, build brush piles to create a wildlife habitat for small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, suggests Michael Canfield, chief of the Ohio Division of Natural Resources' Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention (ODNR).     For more information, call the ODNR at (614) 265-6333.

        If your mail carrier didn't drop off at least 200 catalogs at your house last year, consider yourself and your family below average in shop-at-home consumer rankings. And give yourself a pat on the back.

        According to the ULS (Use Less Stuff) Report, a newsletter focused on solid-waste problems and solutions, the mountains of catalogs — many of them Christmas-oriented and most of them dumped after the holidays — could be shrunk as quickly and as easily as a mailing list.

        If each household canceled 10 catalogs, says ULS editor Robert M. Lilienfeld, Ann Arbor, Mich., the nation could eliminate a stack of paper 2,000 miles tall.

        Nationally, we send enough Christmas cards every year to fill a 10-story building the length and width of a football field. If each of us sent one fewer card, the pile could be reduced by 450,000 cubic feet, or one full story.

Reduction tips
        But don't stop there. For a merry, not-so-trashy Christmas 2001, consider these suggestions:

        • Gifts that require less packaging and wrapping: savings accounts, stocks, movie, concert and sports tickets.

        • Rented dishes, glassware and formal clothing for holiday parties.

        • Homemade ornaments and Christmas decorations, created from existing materials. (See Martha Stewart for instructions.)

        • Break down gift boxes and save them — and ribbons and fancy bags — for next year.

        • Because gift wrap is not recyclable, collect recycled paper you already have, such as Sunday newspaper comics pages and old maps.

        • Or make the wrap part of the gift. Put cookies in a flower pot, or wrap a kitchen accessory in a colorful dish towel.

        • Be selective when you mail Christmas cards, and, when you do, send postcards to reduce paper and postage. Or send e-mail wishes instead.

        • Send the fronts of Christmas cards you receive to St. Jude's Ranch for Children, 100 St. Jude's St., Boulder City, Nev. 89005-1618, for recycling into new cards. Cut others up for use as name cards or ornaments.

        • Drop off packaging materials (bubble wrap, plastic-foam peanuts) to businesses that use them. Call the Plastic Loosefill Council (800) 828-2214 for addresses.

        • To remove your name from third-class mailing lists, send your name, home address and signature to Direct Marketing Association, Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735-9008. For more information, call the association at (212) 768-7277.
       

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