Recycle, reuse, buy responsibly and have a green Christmas!

The city council is launching a campaign on Monday encouraging residents to recycle and reuse as much of their waste as they can.

The campaign links in with CEC’s campaign asking residents to have a less wasteful Christmas and help reduce their impact on the environment and follows last year’s tremendous effort when residents helped the council recycle 6,722 tonnes of waste – that’s about the same weight as 57,000 Santas – over the festive season!

CEC is also asking people to fold up their cardboard neatly before putting it in the correct recycling bin to make sure they leave enough room for all the extra recycling likely to be generated over the festive season.

If there is no room left, we’d encourage you to make an appointment at your nearest recycling centre and take any extra waste there. If that is not possible, fold it up neatly and place it next to your bin on your collection day.

If you have a large amount of any waste generated please don’t place it next to your bins but book an appointment at your local household waste recycling centre.

The council is also letting residents know there are no changes to waste and recycling collections as Christmas and New Year are on a Saturday this year so they should put their recycling and waste bins out on their usual collection days.

Councillor Lesley Macinnes, Environment Convener, said: “It’s really important that we all do our bit to help the environment and the festive season is a perfect opportunity to get creative and reduce waste by making delicious dishes out of leftovers, making gifts for our loved ones and reusing cards and wrapping paper as festive decorations for future years.

“Many more people are still shopping online due to the current health pandemic which means a lot of cardboard is being used. When clearing up this Christmas, please remember to fold cardboard up neatly and recycle it responsibly and I think it is also important to point out that when shopping remember that while foil and metallic wrapping paper and cards may add sparkle to your Christmas, they can’t be recycled.”

Councillor Karen Doran, Environment Vice-Convener, said: “As well us reusing, buying responsibility and locally where you can, when waste is generated, please help us push up our recycling rates by making sure you clean your plastics before they are recycled to stop contamination and put everything in the correct bin.

“Any food you haven’t turned into lovely leftovers, if you put it in your food waste bin, we turn into energy and fertiliser. Recycling one kitchen caddy of food waste can create enough energy to power a TV for five hours.

“Other fun facts we’re sharing to encourage people to recycle are six clean mince pie foil cases saves enough energy to watch up to an hour of TV and one glass bottle saves enough energy to make 14 slices of toast.

“When the fun is over and you’re taking down your tree, if you are recycling it, check which day we’re collecting trees in your street on our website, remove its base, decorations and cut it in half if it’s over 6ft before popping it neatly on the kerbside on its collection day.”

More information on how to have a green Christmas.