Holiday Recycling Guide

Whether you find the holidays stressful or magical, recycling is probably the last thing on your mind during this season. We’ve gathered the answers to all of your holiday-related recycling questions so you can have a happy and sustainable holiday season.

Gift Wrapping Supplies

Those presents look beautiful underneath the tree, but what do you do with the pile of wrapping paper at the end of Christmas day?

  • Wrapping paper, tissue paper, and gift bags that are 100% paper (no glitter, foil, or plastic) can be put into your household recycling. Don’t forget to remove the tape!
  • Ribbons, bows, gift bags, wrapping and tissue paper in good condition can be donated to the Resource Exchange (1800 N. American St Philadelphia, PA 19122) for reuse.

Christmas/ String Lights

Do not put string lights in your household recycling! They can become tangled with machinery at the recycling center and hold up recycling. Instead, try these options:

  • Home Depot, Lowes, and ACE Hardware accept string lights for recycling. Check with your local store this holiday season.
  • Christmas Light Source and 5 Star Holiday Decor offer mail-in services for your Christmas lights. Simply pack up your lights and ship them to either company. They will recycle the materials and donate the proceeds to Toys for Tots.
  • If you remove the bulbs, you can take them to a scrap yard for recycling. The locations that accept string lights are Morello Inc. Metal Recycling (401 E Wood St Norristown, PA 19401) and Sullivan’s Scrap Metals (451 Oakdale Avenue Hatboro, PA 19040).

Christmas Trees

Unfortunately, artificial trees cannot be recycled. Real trees can be recycled into wood chips which can be spread in parks, flower beds, and trails. Many municipalities provide real Christmas tree collections for their residents:

  • Hatfield Borough provides curbside pickup the first two Mondays of January
  • Hatfield Township holds a drop off site at Hatfield Community Park from December 26th to the end of January
  • Lower Gwynedd Township provides Christmas tree and Christmas light curbside pickup two days in January (TBD). Additionally, Seasonal- Christmas trees can be dropped off at Ingersoll Park following the holidays. The park is located at 905 Wister Avenue in Penllyn.
  • Montgomery Township holds a drop off site at William F. Maule Park in North Wales starting December 26th

If your municipality does not offer Christmas tree collections, you can bring your tree to SAVE’s recycling event at Franconia Township Park (Allentown Rd Entrance) on January 7th and 8th from 9am to 1pm for recycling.