Wrapping paper steals the spotlight this Christmas

The temperatures were frigid, but recycling wrapping paper was a hot topic in Regina.

The City of Regina originally said they didn’t want people to recycle wrapping paper this year, citing its processing company’s preference. Earlier this week, the City changed its mind saying it would accept regular wrapping paper but not any with metallic foil, glitter or bows on it.

Crown Shred & Recycling Inc. bid for the contract to process Regina’s recycling but didn’t get it. Crown Shred agreed somewhat, saying the foil does cause some problems when it comes to recycling.

“We can handle it but when we send it down the line to a mill, they don’t like it. It’s called an out-throw, or otherwise garbage,” said Jack Shaw, CEO of Crown Shred.

Shaw said they accept all kinds of wrapping paper for recycling but did say people should just throw the foil-wrap into the garbage.

According to Shaw, not a lot of people use the metallic foil-wrap.

“From my past history with it, there’s very little foil-wrap in the waste stream anyway.”

He said it would take a lot of foil wrap to contaminate a bin enough to render it useless.

He did say if they do receive foil wrap, they will remove it but some does get by and gets sent to the mill.

“Foil wrap is a small percentage of it. Yeah, we don’t like to see it but it’s not the end of the world if we get it.”