Christmas – a time of food, song, good cheer… and lots and lots of waste.
Sacks of toys and hampers of festive fayre can quickly turn into bulging bins.
So what’s the right way to deal with the post-holiday waste… and when?
Refuse collection crews deserve a break as much as the next man or woman, so there’ll be disruption to bin collection days over the festive period.
But there’s no need to bombard Facebook groups with requests for information. Just follow this link, pop in your postcode, and the internet fairy will tell you when to put your bin out.
https://ilforms.wiltshire.gov.uk/WasteCollectionDays/index
When it comes to sorting your recyclables, you’ll need to be careful. Don’t just assume wrapping paper or Christmas cards can be recycled.
Only wrapping paper made of paper and free from glitter can be recycled. Laminated or foil paper cannot be accepted.
To find out if your wrapping paper is free from foil you should scrunch the paper and if it stays in a ball it can be recycled in your blue-lidded recycling bin.
Cards free of glitter, bows, and plastic adornments – along with their envelopes – can be recycled in your blue-lidded recycling bin.
Remember that wet paper and cardboard cannot be recycled and should be placed inside the blue-lidded bin to stay dry.
Advent calendars can be recycled, but need to be broken down first by separating the card, plastic, and tinfoil elements.
Clear plastic can be recycled, while black plastic will have to go in the general waste bin.
Plastic bags and polystyrene packaging cannot currently be recycled. They should be disposed of in the household waste bin. But remember that small plastics bags can be useful in your Christmas recycling mission – see below!
Batteries can be recycled in the blue-lidded recycling bin. Put them together into a plastic bag – see above! – before recycling.
Fairy lights and other small electrical can also be recycled. They should be put in a plastic bag on top of the blue-lidded bin. Aren’t you glad you kept those plastic bags now?
Fake Christmas trees cannot be recycled at kerbside, but they can be taken to a Household Recycling Centre.
As usual kitchen roll tubes, plastic trays, and aluminium cans can all go in the blue-lidded bin, while glass bottles and jars can go in the black box.
For residents with a green waste bin, real Christmas trees can be recycled on any collection day in January. Just place any tree up to 5ft tall next to your bin. For trees over 5ft, simply lop the top off and cut it into pieces small enough to fit inside the bin.
This link https://ilforms.wiltshire.gov.uk/WasteCollectionDays/index will give you green waste collection days for your
postcode.
For those without a green waste collection bin, real Christmas trees – as well as other recyclables – can be taken to your nearest household recycling centre.
There are ten dotted across Wiltshire. Find your nearest, along with the opening times, at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/household-recycling-centre-locations
An alternative is to donate to charity in exchange for Christmas tree collection – Dorothy House https://just-helping.org.uk/register-tree/
Meanwhile unwanted, unused toys can be donated to charity. The Salvation Army’s Christmas Present Appeal collected 68,000 gifts last year – brilliant, but still not enough to meet unprecedented demand.
https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/christmas-present-appeal
