25 Festive Facts and Top Tips for a Greener Christmas

Rethink your Rubbish !

Over the whole of the Christmas period, we will place up to 30% more glass bottles and aluminium and steel drink cans than usual in our household bin, helping to generate more than three million tonnes of rubbish over Christmas. Reduce the amount you throw away and recycle your rubbish - it’s getting easier!

1. After Christmas and New Year parties, sort out all those items that can be recycled - drinks cans and bottles - and put them in your kerbside recycling box to be taken away for recycling.
2. If you find that you fill your recycling box over Christmas put your recyclables into a container at the side of your box and they will be collected. Sort out extra containers for your recycling - re-use cardboard packaging from presents.
3. After preparing Christmas dinner, why not put your left over vegetable peelings in your compost bin? ASDA supermarkets alone sell 140 million sprouts in the final week before Christmas, there’s a lot of composting just waiting to happen. Call 0845 0770757 for details of our discounted home composters.
4. If you’re still buying Christmas presents in December, keep an eye out for recycled products. From fashionable bags and drinking glasses to cushions and clothing - you’ll be amazed at what you can find. Visit www.recyclenow.com to see a full range of recycled goods that make ideal gift ideas!
5. You could treat someone to an "experience present" such as theatre tickets, flying lesson or just a trip to the cinema - they’re very personal gifts and don’t come surrounded by stacks of packaging! You could even make the voucher out of an old Christmas card.
6. Over six million trees were bought last Christmas in the UK, most of which were thrown out after December, creating over 9000 tonnes of additional rubbish - that’s the equivalent weight of 160,000 of Santa’s little helpers! So if you’re buying a real Christmas tree, make sure it has roots so it can grow again. If it can't grow again make sure you take it to one of your local recycling centres where it will be chipped and turned into nutritiuos compost, which will be used to improve County Durham's parks and gardens.
7. If you buy electrical goods as presents, look for items that run off mains electricity rather than batteries. More than 680 million batteries are bought in the UK each year, but just 5% of those are rechargeable - the rest are land filled. If you do buy batteries, by rechargeable!
8. It is estimated that over Christmas as much as 83 square km of wrapping paper will end up in UK rubbish bins, enough to cover an area larger than Guernsey. Use string to tie up your parcels so that the paper can be reused. You can slo used items from the garden such as holly and berries to decorate presents and the tree.
9. Around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging are thrown away over Christmas - that’s the equivalent weight of more than 50,000 festive polar bears!!! When buying gifts, try to avoid items that are excessively packaged.
10. Say "No" to unwanted carrier bags - when doing your Christmas shopping, take a re-usable shopping bag with you or re-use plastic bags. Don’t accept bags that you don’t need this Christmas
11. Order any extra milk this Christmas in returnable glass bottles from the milkman to cut down on plastic bottle or cartons from the supermarket.
12. An extra 500 million aluminium and steel drink cans will also be used over the festive period - vent your festive frustration by crushing your tins before placing them in your recycling box.
13. Buy large bottles of drink rather than lots of small ones to save on packaging waste.
14. Set the kids (and yourselves!) a challenge - how empty can you keep your bin this Christmas?
15. If somebody gives you a present that you don't really want or your children receive a toy that is soon discarded - rather than throw it away, pass it on to your local hospital, play centre, charity shop or school.
16. It is estimated that we could use an extra 750 million bottles and glass containers over Christmas - what better way to relieve seasonal stress than smashing your bottles at the bottle bank?
17. Around 4,200 tonnes of aluminium foil gets thrown away in the UK each Christmas - if you can’t re-use the foil when cooking, visit www.recyclenow.com to find your nearest recycling point!
18. Wash and save all your foil food containers - they can be used again and again! And when they’ve been used as much as they can, watch out for foil collection points so they can be recycled. Visit www.recyclenow.com to find your nearest recycling point!
19. With Christmas Day now just around the corner, thoughts turn to food! When buying the ingredients for your Christmas dinner, make sure you buy "nude" vegetables - it’ll help you cut down on the amount wrapping and packaging you have to throw away or take to be recycled.
20. It is estimated that up to 1 billion Christmas cards (17 for every man, woman and child) could end up in bins across the UK after Christmas. Send recycled cards if you can, and remember not to throw them away when Christmas is over as they can be recycled at WH Smiths and Tesco's TK Maxx and Mark and Spencer!
21. More than 80,000 tonnes of old clothes are thrown away over Christmas - if you get a whole new wardrobe, donate your unwanted clothes to charity shops.
22. Use leftovers from Christmas lunch to make interesting dishes - forget turkey sandwiches and think about curry, stir-fry or a delicious cold meat salad!
23. Remember to recycle your batteries at theHousehold Waste Recycling Centres
24. Remember - the main sources of extra rubbish are packaging and cards, glass bottles, drinks cans and Christmas trees, all of which can be recycled! Check your Christmas recycling and rubbish collection services, and have a happy Christmas!
25. Bin those usual resolutions and make a New Year composting resolution!

January is a great time to start composting because by the summer you will already have some lovely compost for your garden.

You will be surprised at what you can put in your compost bin. Fruit & veggie peelings, dead flowers, grass cuttings, egg shells, pet hair, tea bags and shredded paper and cardboard can all go in.


For further information or advice on waste minimisation please contact Waste Management on 0191 3835674.