Advice on recycling your Christmas waste

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North Somerset Council is unable to recycle wrapping paper this year. Wrapping paper is difficult to recycle because there are so many varieties and most are mixed with unrecyclable items such as foil, glitter, ribbon and sticky tape.

This means all wrapping paper will need to be placed in the black bin this year, and will end up being converted into energy.

Those with a real Christmas tree should consider what they will do with it when the festivities are over. North Somerset Council is working with local organisations to help unwanted Christmas trees become a useful resource. Most trees collected are cut down into chippings and used in land regeneration. Organisations accepting trees in the new year include Noah’s Ark Zoo and Farm, St Peter’s Hospice and Weston Rotary in support of Weston Hospicecare. Last year’s tree collections raised more than £26,000.

Garden waste collection customers can also present trees for collection. They can either be chopped up and put in green waste bins or left whole alongside green waste bins. To enable crews to deal with the increased amount of recycling and waste during the festive period, there are no garden waste collections between 18 December and 16 January.

Councillor Mike Solomon, North Somerset Council’s executive member for neighbourhoods and community services, said: “This is usually the busiest time of year for our recycling and waste teams. Last year, we collected a massive 3,399 tonnes of kerbside recycling over the five-week festive period, around a quarter more than usual.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our crews for all of their hard work over what has been an extremely challenging year for them due to the national aftershocks felt from of Covid-19 and the shortage of HGV drivers. I’d also like to thank residents for their recycling efforts and helping to decrease black bin waste.”

More information can be found on our Christmas waste page.

North Somerset’s Recycling and Waste team can be found on social media using the following links: Facebook (nsrecyclingandwaste) and Twitter (ns_recycling).