When one hears the word “gift,” one might not associate it with
the word “garbage.” However, many households will be leaving
garbage disposal companies a lot of Christmas “gifts.”
There’s a lot of garbage generated during Christmastime as
packages and unwanted items are sent to the curb. Such things as
wrapping paper, boxes, trees, leftovers as well as other Christmas
garbage fill up a lot more garbage bags than one may have at any
other time of year.
“You can’t recycle wrapping paper because of its color so it
goes out in the garbage,” said Greg Taylor, head of the Bradford
Refuse Department.
Taylor said it’s the worst time of year for picking up garbage.
He said normally, they send out two trucks a day, but during the
Christmas season, they send out maybe three, four and sometimes
five trucks for just one night.
“I know it’s picking up. It usually takes longer,” Taylor said
about the time it takes crews to pick up garbage after Christmas.
“At least an hour or two. Of course, that’s with sending three
trucks at a time.”
Taylor said it’s usually busy for at least two weeks after
Christmas with Christmas garbage. He said other times of the year,
they’re busy with regular garbage and furniture.
Mike Winsor of Winsors’ Disposal in Kane said there’s a lot of
boxes to pick up after Christmas.
“The week after Christmas is always tough,” Winsor said.
“There’s boxes out and the snow banks are always high. Boxes are
blowing all over the streets.”
He said there’s lots of bags filled with wrapping paper and
boxes, but not usually anything that makes for a heavy garbage bag.
He said there’s two to three times as many bags after
Christmas.
“The week after Christmas, they (crews) probably run an hour
late each day just because there’s so many bags,” Winsor said. “It
dies down after Christmas. We have the summer rush for
construction, then it slows down in the fall. Then it gets pretty
busy for the week of Christmas. Then we get a little bit of a break
until spring.”
“Garbage men don’t get holidays,” Winsor said. “When there’s
Christmas on a Monday, we pick up on Saturday to make up for it.
It’s five days a week every day of the year. They don’t really get
a weekend off.”
For some garbage pickup crews, Christmas is just another day.
Ray Troutman of Troutman Sanitation in Mount Jewett said, for him,
garbage pickups around Christmas aren’t a lot different from
normal. He said things pretty much run the same each week as far as
what they’re picking up and how long it takes.
