As we continue to open our advent calendars over the next few days, buy those last-minute gifts and dig out those last strips of tinsel, the city’s Waste and Recycling Team are gearing up for a bumper few weeks of waste and recycling collections.
Christmas is a time for giving, receiving and chucking packaging and unwanted stuff in the rubbish bin or recycling box.
A lot of the extra waste created during the festive season can be recycled. Most of us recycle at this time of year, but are we getting it right?
It is estimated that almost a third of waste is generated at Christmas compared with other times of the year. As part of a new Waste and Recycling campaign, Plymouth City Council will be kick starting over the seasonal period with hints and tips to make sure everyone is using the right bin, for the right waste.
Did you know, you cannot put broken glass baubles in your green box? Or a dirty aluminium turkey roasting tray? If you do – your whole recycling bin might not be able to be recycled.
Councillor Tom Briars-Delve, Plymouth City Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: “Christmas is a time to enjoy indulging with the family, but that doesn’t have to come at the expense of our environment.
“Each year, UK households throw away enough gravy to accompany Christmas dinner for the whole country and last Christmas, we consumed enough card packaging to cover Big Ben nearly 260,000 times.
“Without the support of people across Plymouth, we simply cannot achieve our goal of reducing unnecessary waste and leaving the environment in a better state for future generations.
“By making a few small changes - buying items with less packaging, cooking up delicious dinners from your leftover turkey, reusing last year’s wrapping paper - we can all enjoy a greener Christmas to help us save money and the planet.
“Of course, there will be additional waste and recycling and we need to make sure that everyone is using the right bin. By putting the wrong item in your green bin, it can unfortunately mean that your whole bin can’t be recycled.
“So, before you throw something out – check our new webpage to make sure that your efforts count!”
One of the Council’s main priorities is to encourage people to reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and compost more. In doing this we will use less raw materials and save energy whilst protecting natural resources and reducing carbon emissions. All of this will help the Council to achieve its ambition of being a Net Zero Council by 2030.
For more information about what can be recycled over the Christmas period.
For more information about the changes to the Waste and Recycling collection service over Christmas.