"It's overwhelming:" Local recycling centers extremely busy after holiday shipping season

FRANKSVILLE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Local recycling centers are overflowing with boxes after the busy holiday shipping season.

Places like John's Disposal are extremely busy but say it's a good thing. "It's a little overwhelming, but we expect it every year," said Dan Jongetjes, General Manager of John's Disposal.

Thousands of pounds of old cardboard boxes fly through chutes at John's Disposal.

"Every single Christmas, we work hard to have our building totally emptied out and it seems like every year, Santa's really good. More and more material come in every single year," Jongetjes said.

It's all hands on deck for recycling centers after record holiday shopping online.

The U.S. Postal Service estimated it would deliver 10% more packages in 2017 than the year before. Amazon also saw an uptick. The company says it shipped more than 5 billion items for prime members last year.

"We're seeing the online buying, especially like the Amazon plant, Prime, all of that stuff going on, the amount of cardboard and boxes is unbelievable."

Between its two facilities, John's Disposal works with several communities across the state including West Allis, Greenfield, and Greendale.

The process is pretty lengthy but workers repurpose the cardboard so it's ready to use next time you order online. 

"Basically it goes back to a mill and they're going to turn it into a new cardboard box. Ship it back to Amazon and they'll put product in it again and ship it back to somebody's house."

The company says the workload will start to slow down next week.