During the holidays Americans tend to throw away a lot of items and with all those gifts and big family dinners, our garbage and recycling bins fill up quicker than usual.
A lot of the time those items end up in the recycling bin when they shouldn't.
"With the holidays and that coming up we get a lot of styrofoam, plastic wrap, none of that is recyclable," said Assistant Director of Quincy Central Services John Schafer.
The only kind of plastic recycling companies do collect are things like water bottles, soda bottles and yogurt containers.
Plastic bags, bubble wrap, and glass don't belong in your recycling either.
Schafer said wrapping paper, bows, and ribbon may look nice under your tree but they don't belong in your recycling.
"Pretty much anything they wrap on the outside is not recyclable so just the cardboard boxes and regular newspapers are all recyclable," Schafer said.
It's the workers that pay the price when trash items are put in recycling.
"A lot of the times people will just put garbage in with their recycling and our guys have to sort through that sort of thing," Schafer explained. "I've had issues before where I've had to go and talk to people about it and when I go to them and show them what's in that container and say 'would you want to put your hands in this kind of thing?' they understand."
His most important rule of thumb is, "If it looks like garbage it probably is garbage."
