Families and other residents across the East Riding are being issued with a festive challenge – to recycle as much of their Christmas and New Year waste as they can.
This time of year generates more waste than any other time, with hundreds of tonnes of wrapping paper, cardboard boxes and food packages thrown in the bin during the post-Christmas clean up.
So the waste and recycling officers at East Riding of Yorkshire Council are urging people to take up their challenge and sort as much of their waste as possible into their blue or brown bins – so it can be recycled into lots of useful things … including next year’s wrapping paper and cards!
To help, the officers are offering this festive advice to let people know which bins they should put their seasonal rubbish into:
• Blue bins – Can be used to recycle plastic sweet tubs, metal biscuit tins, wrapping paper, Christmas cards and envelopes, all cardboard boxes, cardboard advert calendars, all glass and plastic bottles, cans, books, egg boxes, plastic tubs and trays, juice cartons, newspapers, magazines and junk mail.
• Brown bins and kitchen caddies – Can be used to recycle your food waste into compost. This includes your Christmas dinner plate scrapings and any cooked or uncooked food, turkey carcases, meat bones, fruit and vegetable peelings, leftover meat, and egg shells. Use the free kitchen caddy liners to put your food waste into, or wrap it in newspaper or kitchen roll.
In the East Riding, food waste still makes up 30% of all waste people place in green household rubbish bins.
So the officers are encouraging people to make a festive effort to use their brown bin more often, as they are collected every two weeks even during winter.
Cllr Symon Fraser, portfolio holder for asset management, housing and environment, said: “East Riding residents have always supported our recycling schemes, so I am sure they will take up this challenge during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“Hopefully they will continue to recycle that little bit more in 2016.”
