After-holiday cleanup: What to recycle

Wrap dominates the holidays: The boxes you wrap, the wrapping you trash, and the left-over wrap you’ll probably keep.

Here’s a hint about gift wrap: It usually can’t be recycled. Metallic paper can never be recycled, neither can glittery things nor paper with plastic in it. Same for gift bags. The test is whether you can crumble it up and whether it stays crumbled. If it stays crumbled you might be able to recycle it.

Some things that can’t be recycled:

Decorations
Trees, real or artificial
Clothing and shoes
Ribbons and bows
Cellophane wrap
Packing materials, including bubble wrap and foam peanuts.
Food waste
Anything battery powered.
Sticky gift labels

But you can recycle:

Gift boxes
Tissue paper
Shoe Boxes
Cards and envelopes