Reminder from Ocean County: Add recycling to your holiday

If the sparkly tree in the living room is fresh, it's going to wither. If your big gift is a new TV, smart phone, laptop or pad, the old one will need a place to go, along with the wrapping paper that covered it. In all cases, remember to recycle, say Ocean County officials.

Christmas tree Farm, Photo Credit to NJ Department of Agriculture/ McLaughlin

The county maintains a forward-looking recycling program, conscious of the eventual filling of the Ocean County Landfill and aggressively placing its collected recyclables on the global market. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the material returns to the 33 municipalities in the form of grants.

Single-stream recycling, still unavailable in most of the state, means all recyclables can go in the same container for collection. They're sorted at the county recycling centers.

The county began accepting electronics for recycling in 2011 in response to New Jersey's Electronics Waste Management Act, which prohibits e-waste from entering landfills.

Trailers stand at the Northern Recycling Center in Lakewood and the Southern Recycling Center in Stafford Township. If your municipal public works department accepts e-waste, it might be an even shorter trip.

Wrapping and box-lining tissue paper, greeting cards, gift bags and corrugated gift boxes, catalogs and junk mail are all recyclable as well, and can be mingled with the newsprint, bottles and cans in the container you place curbside for collection.

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

Mailing centers accept styrofoam and other protective packaging materials.

Now, about that tree. Thirteen county parks serve as dropoff points for used real trees, which take on new roles as wood chips for landscaping.

Trees can be deposited from December 26 through February 1 at: