Christmas expands your waste-line, don’t let it expand your bin’s waste!
Warwickshire’s residents are being called upon to do their bit and try and prevent as much waste as possible from heading to landfill this Christmas, and to think recycling when it comes to New Year’s resolutions.
It is estimated that more than three million tonnes of waste will be produced in the UK this Christmas.
Six million Christmas trees will be thrown away; enough wrapping paper to cover an area larger than the Isle of Guernsey will be used; an extra 24 million glass jars will be put into the bin from pickles, cranberry sauce and mincemeat; 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be thrown away and enough aluminum foil to stretch to the North Pole and back 52 times will go into our wheelie bins.
On top of this it is predicted that one billion Christmas cards will be sent, that is 17 for every man woman and child. Last year only 45 million of the cards sent were recycled, the rest went to landfill.
The good news is that you can recycle much of your Christmas waste – and raise money for charity at the same time. WH Smith and Tesco are backing the Woodland Trust’s new campaign, Tree For All, through their Christmas card recycling scheme, and funds raised through the project will help give every child in the UK the chance to plant trees.
And if you’ve had a new mobile phone for Christmas, don’t forget to recycle your old one in at our Household Recycling Centres. Every mobile phone recycled this way will raise £3.50 for Guide Dogs for the Blind.
You can chop up your Christmas tree and put it in your green wheelie bin, or add it to the green waste at any of Warwickshire’s Household Recycling Centres. Either way, it will be composted and spread on farmland in the county. Don’t forget you can now recycle your plastic bottles at all the Household Recycling Centres. Please remember that wrapping paper cannot be put in kerbside recycling boxes, though, so try to re-use wrapping paper wherever possible or compost it.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Portfolio Holder for the Environment, says: “Everyone wants to enjoy Christmas, but it’s a shame it creates so much waste. If everyone can make an effort to recycle more this year, it could make a real difference. Better still, make it a new year’s resolution to reduce, re-use and recycle wherever possible.”
For more information on recycling visit http//www.warwickshire.gov.uk/wastewise