Don’t Increase your Christmas Waste-line
25th December 2019
As a country, we now recycle more than we send to landfill. Keep up this good work over the Christmas break and ensure as much of your rubbish is recycled as possible!
What a Load of Rubbish
The amount of wrapping paper thrown away at Christmas in the UK alone would stretch to the moon, according to estimates by recycling advisors WRAP. This, along with around one billion cards and enough tin foil to cover a county such as Suffolk, equates to a lot of rubbish generated over the festive period.
However, people are recycling more at home than ever before, with over 45% of UK household waste now being recycled. With the recycling process easier than it has ever been, you can play your part and help keep up the good work by ensuring as much of your festive waste is recycled as possible.
The Government says: “This Christmas, Britain would have generated millions of tonnes of rubbish – but it doesn’t need to end up in landfill. Recycling is a simple way to save resources. It’s easier than ever before for people to do their bit over the holidays and help make a real difference to the environment.”
Louise Bowe, from WRAP’s recycling campaign, Recycle Now, adds: “It’s really quick and easy to check what can be recycled where you live – just pop your postcode into recyclenow.com or check on your local council website. The materials we recycle have real value – take a look at the Recycle Now website to see how your rubbish gets turned into new things! It’s definitely worth checking at any time of year to make sure we are recycling everything we can.”
Treecycle!
Don’t forget you can also recycle your Christmas tree! Real trees can either be planted in your garden to be used again next year, or – if you are part of the Garden Waste Collection Service – you can put your tree out with your other garden waste.
You can also drop your tree off at a recycling centre, where it will be chipped for walk paths or turned into soil. Or you can find an organisation or a charity that offers a treecycling service where it could be used to make effective barriers against floods. Alternatively, you can safely cut up and burn your Christmas tree in a fireplace to help keep you warm during the winter.
If your artificial Christmas tree has seen the end of its life, this can be taken to your local tip.
Jack Philbin, Garden Square’s Centre Manager, says: “Christmas is always a busy time and sometimes it’s easy to forget to recycle and reuse. But, by dedicating a small amount of time to separating recyclable items and ensuring that we make the most of our food leftovers, it can make a big difference to the environment. We’re dedicated to sustainability at Garden Square, and we’ll be doing our bit to ensure we recycle and reuse as much as possible during this time of year and going forward.”
We’d like to take this opportunity to wish our shoppers a very Happy, Healthy and Sustainable New Year!
