Your Guide to Festive Recycling
With just weeks to go until Christmas, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is encouraging residents to treat the environment by recycling over the festive period.
We all know Christmas can be a crazy time – so many lists to write, shopping to organise and parties to attend! There's so much going on that often recycling and the reason it’s so important can fall to the very bottom of the priority list – But Christmas is actually the ideal time to recycle everything you can!
With all the fun, food, excitement and gifts comes lots of packaging and extra waste. The Council is asking its residents to recycle unavoidable food waste (turkey bones, plate scrapings etc), extra plastic bottles, pots, tubs, trays, wrapping paper, Christmas cards, Christmas trees, tubs and trays, metal cans, glass bottle, jars, cardboard packaging and lots more, during the holiday season.
Please remember to give food and drink containers, bottles etc. a quick rinse in washing up water and remove any plastic tops or lids before placing them in to your recycling bags!
Handy Tip – Don’t overfill your food waste recycling bag as this can lead to spillages and cause the bag to split – use as many bags as you need to and place them in to the larger bags in your Food Waste Caddy –The 12 tips and facts of Christmas Recycling
And while we might spend a little extra time getting ready for Christmas and New Year nights out, just remember that toiletries such as plastic shower gel and shampoo bottles, deodorant and shaving gel aerosols along with card packaging from face creams and moisturiser’s can all be recycled!
Of course the easiest items to recycle are all the cardboard and paper packaging that you’ll come across during the Christmas period. So after the presents are unwrapped and you’re wondering how to clear away the mountain of boxes, paper bags and wrapping paper – simply grab your clear recycling bag and fill it up! Remember though that you can’t currently recycle foil or glitter wrapping paper. Flatten any cardboard boxes and paper bags to make space in your recycling.
To free up even more space you can also visit one of the six local recycling centres, which are open from 8am until 5.30pm every day except for a 3.30pm closure on 24th and 31st December and complete closure on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. Don’t forget to sort out your recycling in to paper, cardboard, glass, metal etc before you visit the centres as they will no longer accept bags of mixed recycling.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Cabinet Member for Environment, Leisure and Culture, said: “Think green during the festive period and remember to recycle all that extra waste – wrapping paper, cards, toy packaging etc. Everyone needs to realise that we all have to play our part to recycle more waste – not just at Christmas.
“Rhondda Cynon Taf Council continues to support people and is encouraging residents to keep up the good work all year around. The Council provides an accessible and innovative recycling service, complemented by ongoing public education and awareness-raising. Together we can make Rhondda Cynon Taf a clean, green place to live, work and visit.”
Changes to service delivery over the Festive Period:
All collections will remain the same over the Christmas and New Year period –Except for those whose normal collection is on a Friday, inc nappy recycling collections.
All refuse and recycling should be placed at its normal collection point by 7am on the revised collection days below –
- Friday 25th December will now be collected on Sunday 27th December
- Friday 1st January will now be collected on Saturday 2nd January 2016
There will be no sharps or bulky waste collections from 21st December until 4th January 2016.
Please remember to place refuse and recycling out before 7am on your collection day and not before as this can lead to spillages and difficulties for pedestrians using the .
If we have not collected your refuse/recycling as planned, please leave it at the kerbside as we may be working additional hours to clear a back log and we’ll get to you asap – our crews can work well in to the evening during busy periods and extra staff can sometimes be called in to clear the items the next day.
In order to ensure that the Streetcare team collects all the extra recycling we receive, the Council will not be able to deliver recycling bags to households after the 21st December until 11th January. Residents are advised to visit one of the 180 collection points across Rhondda Cynon Taf to pick up bags during this time. All collection points will be restocked and will continue to receive deliveries over the festive period- find your nearest.
The Streetcare Team would also like to remind residents to park sensibly, so that they can get the recycling truck down your street.
Once you’ve recycled all the packaging from around the home and Christmas is becoming a distant memory for another year – what do you do with the “real” Christmas tree? Christmas trees are 100% recyclable and will be collected as part of your green waste recycling collections – Please chop it up in to manageable sized chunks and place it in to the clear recycling bags where possible –then place it at your normal collection point.
Please remember that green waste is collected separate to all other recycling and refuse – we expect increased demand after the festive period and will be doing our utmost to get you. Please bear with us if we are delayed and we’ll get you as soon as possible, alternatively you can take your real and artificial trees along to one of the six local Community Recycling Centres.
The Council’s Streetcare Team will also be taking to the streets and supermarkets across the County Borough to answer all your festive recycling questions. The team will also have a stock of food and clear recycling bags available.
The teams will be in the following locations from 10am until 2pm –
|
Tonypandy Town Centre |
1st December 2015 |
|
Pontypridd Town Centre |
2nd December 2015 |
|
Aberdare Town Centre |
4th December 2015 |
|
Tesco Upper Boat |
14th December 2015 |
|
Asda Aberdare |
15th December 2015 |
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Co-op Car Park Treorchy |
17th December 2015 |
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