Somerset families are being urged not to miss their Christmas week kerbside recycling collection to avoid having excess waste next week.
With no collections on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the rest of this week's pick-ups are two days' later: usual Tuesday collection will take place today, Wednesday's on Friday, with Thursday's pick-ups on Saturday 29 and Friday's on Sunday 30 December.
All recycling sites are open on their usual schedule, except for shutting at 4pm on Monday 31 December and closing on New Year's Day.
At Viridor, which operates Somerset's recycling sites, regional manager Patrick Murray said: "As well as Christmas trees, we can recycle 32 items at the 18 recycling centres across Somerset.
"Bring them down to your local recycling centre so they can be transformed into new materials and products."
Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) managing director Steve Read said: "Check when your pick-up is due so you do not end up with two weeks' recycling next time.
"And please try to roughly segregate the contents of your recycling boxes to help crews collect as much as possible at their busiest time of year."
Among SWP's top recycling tips:
- Help collection crews by spreading extra items over a couple of weeks or more and keeping materials separated in recycling boxes.
- It is best to save cards and wrapping paper for reuse. Otherwise, recycle these with cardboard, but not if printed on plastic or foil.
- Take large quantities of cardboard to recycling sites and combine the trip by taking other items, such as natural Christmas trees for composting.
- Include paper kitchen towel with food waste – including turkey carcasses – for recycling.
- Rinse bottles and cans, take tops off, ensure aerosols are empty, flatten card, scrunch up aluminium foil, and keep textiles dry in bags (not black sacks).
If you have woken up to a festive waste hangover, with a fridge full of leftovers and a bulging rubbish bin, there is no need to rush to your local landfill site as almost everything can be reused or recycled:
- Food – freeze or re-use leftovers; compost sprout and other peelings or recycle with other food waste.
- Cards and wrapping – save cards for gift-tags; reuse wrapping paper or recycle with card at the kerbside.
- Decorations – compost anything green, from mistletoe to your real tree.
- Unwanted gifts – give away to charity or through online networks, or sell them on.
- If you replaced TVs, white goods or furniture for Christmas, offer working items in good condition to Somerset's reuse groups.
For more on reuse and recycling, including all festive changes, check: www.somersetwaste.gov.uk.