Holiday gift waste: What you can and can't recycle

It's now the time of year where families are starting to take down the Christmas decorations and throw away the wrapping paper. Many load their recycling bins with wrapping paper, tissues, ribbons and Styrofoam -- items that aren't recyclable.

Marissa Begley with Millennium Recycling says that there are plenty of holiday wrapping recycling no's that people should remember. Here's a list of items to throw in your garbage and not your recycling bin:

-Gift wrap with glitter, gloss, plastics, metallic coatings, or foils

-Tissue paper with glitter, gloss, plastics, metallic coatings, or foils

-Bows, ribbon, yard, string (stringy items can ruin equipment)

-Excessive tape or glue

-Tinsel

-Styrofoam

There are options to remember for next year if you want to recycle your wrapping paper. Brown paper grocery bags, newspapers, sheets of craft paper or plain paper wrapping paper can be recycled.

You can also donate your used wrapping paper and packaging to JAM Art & Supplies in Sioux Falls. They use it for their Creative Reuse Summer Camp. More information on that can be found at the link to the right of this article.

If you're ready to toss that tangled mess of Christmas lights, remember not to throw them away in the trash OR the recycling bin. The Sioux Falls Household Hazardous Waste Facility will recycle Christmas lights for free.

If you need any other questions answered about what you can and can't recycle, visit the links to the right of the article.