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Airdrie Recycle Depot converts recycled goods into festive decorations

As the old expression goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

As the old expression goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

That is literally true in the case of the City of Airdrie’s Recycling Depot, at least when it comes to upcycling recycled products and converting them into new Christmas and holiday decorations at the east Airdrie facility.

“The last couple years, the City of Airdrie Recycling Depot, the operations staff and I make a point of upcycling material into Christmas decorations,” explained Shelley Anderson Slevinsky, the City's Waste and Recycling operations coordinator. “This promotes a true festive spirit around the depot. 

“Not only does it engage the residents and operation staff about the benefits of upcycling, it also helps educate them on the popular Christmas items that we can and cannot recycle both here at the depot and in our residential curbside program.”

Slevinksy said there are many great ways to turn recycled objects into festive decorations, such as taking used toilet paper rolls or paper bags and turning them into snowflakes, turning old torn-up books into a Christmas tree, or reusing cookie tins to send home with Christmas guests.

According to Slevinsky, when it comes to upcycling, you are really only limited by your own imagination.

“We  took simple items like used clean, white, tape-free Styrofoam, (the only kind we accept), and made it into a gingerbread house,” she explained. “We turned a T.V cardboard box into a standing Christmas tree, bicycle rims into a snowman, old denim jeans into a mini Christmas tree and a Hanukkah Menorah out of water bottles and light bulbs.”

Recycling and upcycling help keep materials that are potentially reusable out of landfills, said Slevinsky. However, it’s also a great way to re-use materials that may be great for making decorations out of, but which are not accepted in the City’s blue bins or curbside pick-up programs, such as holiday ribbons, bows, tinsel, cellophane, and foil wrapping paper.

Slevinksy and her staff are also reminding residents not to put broken Christmas decorations into the recycling bins this year, instead people should be depositing them straight into the garbage for safety-related reasons.


Tim Kalinowski

About the Author: Tim Kalinowski

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