(Published Dec. 23, 2007) –It happens just after Christmas each year.

Cardboard-box mountains overshadow brimming garbage cans at yard’s edge all over town.

The amount of waste generated in the wake of Christmas gift giving is significant enough that two additional sanitation trucks are put into use in Athens during the last week of December.

“The cardboard makes it hectic for us,” said Earl Glaze, director of the Athens Sanitation Department. “People set it out beside their garbage can so we have to run the trash truck to pick it up. It’s already busy for us with just the garbage.”

Glaze said he normally operates three trash trucks, which use a scooping device to pick up such items as yard waste and piles of cardboard and four garbage trucks, which use an automated arm to dump residential rollaway garbage cans. During the week after Christmas, however, one additional trash truck and one additional garbage truck are required.

“That’s several tons that go to the landfill that wouldn’t if people would carry the cardboard to the recycling center,” Glaze said.

While residents within the city limits of Athens have access to curbside recycling, cardboard – because of its bulk – must be taken to the recycling center rather than being placed at the curb with other recyclables.

So, why go to the trouble?

As Glaze pointed out, so much cardboard takes up a significant amount of landfill space. In fact, Environmental Protection Agency statistics show that paper – the waste umbrella under which cardboard falls – accounts for more than 40 percent of municipal landfill volume.

Many folks believe that paper products such as cardboard are quick to biodegrade. Not so, notes the EPA on its website.

“Organic materials, including paper, do not easily biodegrade once they are disposed of in a landfill. Paper is many times more resistant to deterioration when compacted in a landfill than when it is in open contact with the atmosphere.”

Researchers who dug through landfill waste even discovered that newspapers more than 30 years old had not yet begun to deteriorate and were actually still readable. And cardboard, certainly, is much more sturdy and durable than newspaper.

As if conserving landfill space weren’t enough, recycling that holiday cardboard carries a one-two punch when it comes to environmental responsibility – as does recycling in everyday life.

According to the National Recycling Coalition, recycling is not only good for the environment – requiring less energy and using fewer natural resources than manufacturing items from freshly mined virgin resources – but recycling is also good for the economy.

NRC research indicates that recycling is a $236 billion industry employing some 1.1 million workers nationwide.

So there you have it, a variety of solid reasons to recycle those holiday boxes or, better yet, resolve to recycle as much as possible in the new year.

Athens City residents have access to weekly curbside service and may obtain a recycling bin by calling the Recycling Hotline at 233-8000 or the Athens-Limestone Recycling Center at 233-8746.

Limestone County residents who live outside the city limits may bring items to the Recycling Center on Lucas Ferry Road just south of U.S. 72 or use recycling drop-off trailers located at several county schools including: Cedar Hill, Clements, Creekside, East Limestone, Elkmont, Reid, Owens and West Limestone.

Items accepted curbside and at the drop-off trailers include aluminum cans, metal/steel cans, glass bottles and jars, #2 HDPE and #1 PETE plastic containers, newspaper, magazines, junk mail and office paper.

Additional items such as cardboard, paperboard, batteries, scrap metal and copper, used motor oil, used cell phones and ink cartridges are also accepted at the Recycling Center. For more information about local recycling click on the Recycling Board link at keepathenslimestonebeautiful.com or send an e-mail inquiry to recycling44@yahoo.com.