December 31, 2004
Steve Rubenstein
Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Full Article
They're recycling Christmas down at Pier 96 in San Francisco, and it's about to be tied up into giant bundles and shipped out of town.
That's what happens to Christmas when it's over with. Much of it gets tossed into blue recycling bins and dragged to the sidewalk. The contents of each and every one of the 200,000 blue bins in San Francisco end up at Recycle Central, an enormous rendering plant for whatever happened the previous week.
What happened last week was Christmas. Right now, its wrapping paper is inside Pier 96. Also empty cartons, Champagne bottles, greeting cards and instruction manuals for toys that have probably already broken.
After the holidays, trash goes up about 15 percent. This year, there are more recyclables at Pier 96 than ever, and the plant is running extra shifts to handle it all.
"It was a prosperous year," said plant manager John Jurinek, surveying the 700 daily tons of trash spread before him. "If we were not really more prosperous, at least we were feeling more prosperous. That's what the pile tells me."