Check what you recycle this holiday season, says City of St. John's

The City of St. John's is urging residents to be more aware of what they're trying to recycle this holiday season.

Cans, plastic containers and cardboard gets crushed into bails at the Robin Hood Bay collection depot, ready to be shipped out for recycling.

Paul Mackey, deputy city manager, said the city wants people to keep in mind what is and isn't recyclable during one of the busiest time of the year for waste.

"Some of the things that are frequently used around Christmas that can be recycled are, for example, aluminum pie pans, aluminum trays that you get materials on, food materials on — these are all recyclable. The plastic fruit and vegetable containers, those are recyclable," said Mackey.

"All types of wrapping paper, tissue paper, gift bags, they are not recyclable. The reason being it's very low quality paper, and there are just no markets out there for it so it would make no sense for us to collect it if we can't sell it or reuse it, so that has to go with the garbage unfortunately."

Mackey warns glass bottles and containers can't be recycled curbside, either.

"Any type of glass is not recyclable in our curbside program. If a collector notices it in the bag, he will actually leave the bag behind because it become a safety issue in terms of mixing the glass with other material," he said.

Mackey said city workers will leave a sticker on the bag indicating the wrong materials are in the bag, so homeowners can be more aware.