Top tips to make festive recycling easier

With more waste produced over the festive period, Renfrewshire Council is advising residents on how to make sure they can recycle effectively with some top tips on how to deal with excess waste.

With Renfrewshire’s recycling rate continuing to increase every quarter, there is a drive to maintain this positive step when there is more waste than normal over the Christmas period.

Top tips to recycle effectively are:

• Packaging can pile up at Christmas time so make sure you separate paper, card and cardboard into your blue bin, with polystyrene and plastic wrapping not recyclable.
• Flattening cardboard boxes will give you more space in your blue bin.
• Plain wrapping paper and Christmas cards can go into your blue bin, but anything with glitter, foil or plastic can’t be recycled.
• Leftover Christmas dinner and nibbles should go into your brown bin or food caddy to be recycled, it’ll save you more space than you’d think in your grey general waste bin.
• If you’re having a festive tipple, make sure cans and bottles go into your green recycling bin and not the grey bin.
• Contamination of recycling can ruin all your efforts, so make sure tinsel, bauble and fairy lights go into your grey bin as they can’t be recycled.
• If you’ve got a real Christmas tree, you can recycle it from 4 to 11 January at Barshaw, Lochwinnoch, Barwood and Thomas Shanks Public Parks, or at the recycling centre at Underwood Road.

Renfrewshire’s Household Waste Recycling Centres will be open every day, except on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, for any excess waste residents need to dispose of during the festive period.

Councillor Cathy McEwan, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board, said: “The festive period really is a brilliant time of the year, but it does bring extra food waste, packaging and bottles than you would normally have to deal with.

“Using your recycling bins effectively will mean you have more space in your grey bin for anything that can’t be recycled, and you can also be satisfied that you’ve done your bit to stop any waste going to landfill.

“Our recycling centres are open almost every day throughout the festive period, so please use these too if you find Santa’s been extra good to you this year.

“Our bin collections are running as normal throughout the period, with the exception of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, so please make sure you know when your bin should be going out during the festivities.”

Any resident due to have their bin collected on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day will have a different collection over the festive period, with these collections rearranged to earlier in the week.

Grey, blue or food waste bins will be collected the previous Sunday, on 22 and 29 December.

Green bin, brown bin, sack collection or bulk bin recycling will be collected the previous Monday, on 23 and 30 December.

Bulk bin residual, food or trade will be collected the previous day on Tuesday 24 and 31 December.

All bins due to be collected on all other days will be collected as normal.

For more information on bin collection or recycling in Renfrewshire, visit www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/mybins.