Wrapping up Christmas

Ever notice the way something sad seems to happen to all that glitzy wrapping paper the day after Christmas? Like the way it gets crumpled up and abandoned under the recliner, or shoved between the sofa cushions?

Disposal of post-holiday abundance is one of those annual tasks that must be done with more than a little care. So, for starters, never burn wrapping paper in the fireplace.

Jim Lyon, fire inspector and fire prevention specialist at Northern Lakes Fire District has this to say about wrapping paper: "Because of the type of paper it is - thin and often-times a low grade - when people crumple it up and toss it in the fireplace, it has the potential to ignite the creosote residue sticking to the inner walls of the chimney. If you do put paper in the fireplace - or even, heaven forbid, put a Christmas tree in there - it will burn hot and it will burn fast. The result may well be a chimney fire."

And while a chimney fire may sound harmless, that is often not the case. A chimney fire can lead to an attic fire. There is often a delay, Lyon said, in identification of attic fires because they are usually above the level of residential smoke detectors. People will often smell smoke, but be unable to identify its location.

"If people have natural Christmas trees in their homes, they should get them out of the house as soon as possible after the 25th," Lyon said. "They're typically very dry at this point and are an extreme fuel in the sense that they have a sap inside their needles - a dry Christmas tree will burn completely in under 30 seconds."

If you require visual proof of this phenomenon, visit www.fire.nist.gov/tree_fire.htm for an enlightening - and terrifying - demonstration.

Now then, repeat after me: I promise I will never burn a Christmas tree in my fireplace.

So how, exactly, are you supposed to dispose of your holiday overflow? How about the Kootenai County dump?

"Usually the day after Christmas is one of our biggest days," said Kootenai County solid waste director Roger Saterfiel. "People come here to get rid of their Christmas wrappings. They occasionally even mistakenly toss their new Christmas gifts, because they somehow get mixed up with the wrappings."

Christmas trees, Saterfiel said, will get recycled. "We have a guy who comes in and grinds up the trees and then mixes them in with other wood. Ultimately this gets sent to a cogeneration plant to generate electricity." He said that in the last five years, he has seen a 25 percent reduction in live trees at the facility.

He requests that you remove all ornaments and decorations before toting your greenery to the dump. Hard though it may be to believe, people have been known to dispose of fully-decorated trees.

Cardboard is also recycled. "It's much nicer if people break down their boxes ahead of time, making more room," Saterfiel said. "It's more efficient and makes it easier for the recycling center."

Jeff Owens, a lawyer on his lunch hour, was breaking down several large cartons before dumping the flats into the huge metal container. "I think the biggest box came from the life-size, stuffed panda sent to my kids," he said. "I've noticed that this year we're getting a lot more presents that were shipped directly from the warehouse - like Amazon or L.L. Bean - and that's why there are so many more cartons."

When it comes to the wrappings that you've already been warned not to burn, Saterfiel said you can't recycle them, either.

"There are so many different kinds of them: tin-foil, bows, ribbons, whatever - and it's so difficult to separate them. Even if the wrapping paper looks and feels the same throughout, it has different fibers in it. So, in the end, it's impossible for it to be recycled."

The answer to how to dispose of wrappings is simple: drop them in the garbage.

"When this stuff gets to the landfill, it's so flimsy, it will decompose quickly," Saterfiel said.

Other holiday safety advice: Keep a good eye on your candles. "December is the highest month for in-home candle fires, and more than half of these are caused by leaving combustibles too close to the candles themselves," Lyon said.

And those brand-new gifts that get thrown away by mistake? Saterfiel said that when his employees find one, they set it aside for a few weeks and wait to see if anyone comes to claim it. If not, it will be donated to St. Vincent de Paul.