Holidays will affect township recycling

With the upcoming holidays, Rumpke announced that it will not be servicing the township recycling bins on Christmas Day. Because of this, sites that are serviced on Mondays will experience a large gap from when bins will be emptied. "The Ottawa Sandusky Seneca Solid Waste District is asking residents to please be patient," stated a press release from the OSS. "These bins will fill up fast with recycling from holiday activities and will be backfilled for a couple days after Christmas as Rumpke haulers catch up." If a resident visits the township recycling sites and bins are filled to the lid, the OSS encourages the resident to come back another day, and not to leave material beside the bins. Also, since winter winds can blow out recyclable material when lids are not fully closed, the OSS is also asking residents to ensure lids are properly shut and sealed before leaving the recycling site. "If an excess amount of snow or ice covers the bin lids, please notify the township trustees so they can remove it," the press release stated. "Heavy snow on top of the bins can cause costly damage. Above all, please be safe when traveling. Recycling can wait until after the holidays if inclement weather is expected." With anticipation of higher volumes of recyclables in the bins over the holidays, some tips provided by the OSS to help residents save space in the recycling bin include: Do not recycle packaging materials like Styrofoam and bubble wrap. Do not leave your material on the ground beside the containers if the bins are full. Do not bag recyclables. Flimsy plastics like bags become tanglers and limit recycling. Leave material loose in the bin. Break down and flatten cardboard boxes to save space. Ribbons, Christmas lights, tissue paper, and foil wrapping paper should not go in the recycling bin. Flattened gift boxes, greeting cards, envelopes, wrapping paper and gift bags that are not made of foil or covered in glitter can be recycled For more information, reach out to the district by emailing ossonline@recycleoss.org.