Recycling at Christmas and Christmas Tree Collections

Stuff the Turkey and your Food Waste caddy this Christmas!

We spend, on average, £169 on our Christmas food and drink but at the same time we're wasting £50 a month throwing away good food.

We all love food; it's one of the things that makes the festive season special. And in the UK Christmas shopping baskets contain 10 million turkeys, around 370 million mince pies and 25 million Christmas puddings. Then there's all that fabulous food when we eat out - at office parties and celebrations with family and friends.

Christmas is all about giving, so why not give us your food waste. You can put anything from bones to bread sauce or chestnuts to cheese in your caddy, see the picture for a more comprehensive list. Make sure your caddy is placed next to your refuse bin before 7am on collection day. Food can be loose, in a compostable bag or in wrapped in a sheet of newspaper, please DO NOT use plastic bags.

For recycling hints, tips and information over the festive period keep an eye on our recycling webpage. Follow RBWM on twitter and facebook as we will be running a food waste advent calendar for advice on what to place in your food caddies in the run up to Christmas.

Christmas and New Year Collections

The countdown to Christmas has started, and RBWM is encouraging us all to keep the party going by remembering to recycle over the festive period. We are recycling more at home than ever before and the great news is, the recycling rate for RBWM now stands at nearly 50%.

Christmas is a time for entertaining and RBWM wants to remind us all to recycle as much as possible. Don't forget any extra Christmas plastic pop bottles, ice cream and margarine tubs, meat trays and brandy butter pots, metal tins and cans, glass bottles and cranberry sauce jars, and wrapping paper, cardboard packaging and orange juice tetra-pak cartons.

Check the calendar for the festive holiday refuse and recycling collection changes.

Christmas Tree Recycling

To assist in recycling at this time of year the Authority makes special arrangements for the collection of real Christmas trees. Details are provided below.

Participation levels are always high and last year we recycled just under 14,000 Christmas trees, that's just over 15 tonnes. That is fantastic, however, it is thought that in the UK approximately 250 tonnes of Christmas trees that could have been recycled are simply thrown out after Christmas.

Real Christmas Trees may be left at any of the following sites (minus decorations) between Friday 4th January 2013 and Friday 18th January 2013:

A temporary site will also be provided on Saturday 12th January 2013.

Cookham Dean, by the War Memorial - 10a.m. to 12 Noon.

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