YORK, Pa. — According to a study from Stamford University, Americans throw away 25 percent more trash from Thanksgiving to New Year. That waste is equivalent to 25 million tons of garbage each week.
The York County Solid Waste Authority collects most of the trash in York County and transfers holiday waste into electricity.
The York County Resource Recovery Center is the site where all garbage goes from when commercial haulers pick it up. After the trash comes to the facility, it is burned and the gas from the fire creates electricity.
“The way we get the electricity is from heating up water from burning the waste in a boiler system, and we have a turbine where the water and steam go through the turbine where then the electricity is created,” said Jen Cristofoletti, Community Service Manager at York County Solid Waste Authority.
Cristofoletti said there are two ways you can get rid of garbage, either using a landfill or utilizing waste to energy like to Resource Recovery Center. Utilizing the waste-to-energy plan powers up to 20,000 to 30,000 homes in York.
“Of course we promote recycling, that’s first and foremost, and landfills are still very much still needed, but this is a way of taking all of the county's waste and recycling it and making it into something new,” said Cristofoletti.
Items like broken ornaments, tensile, and Christmas lights can go into your regular garbage. Items like cardboard boxes, holiday cards, and plain paper shopping bags can be put into a recycling bin. Hauling companies will take it to the York County Resource Recovery Center where it’ll be incinerated into electricity.
The York County Solid Waste Authority has a free Christmas Tree drop-off for York County Residents, for a full list of drop-off locations click here.
Download the FOX43 app here.