Sunderland City Council is urging Wearside’s residents to give some thought to recycling during the festive season.
The council’s portfolio holder for city services, Michael Mordey, said, “Our residents are fantastic at recycling, but there’s always more that can be done.”
“We’re approaching the festive season, when most families generate more rubbish, but if you put it in the right bin, everything should fit in.”
“We’re urging residents NOT to put any food waste, plastic bags, batteries, wrapping paper or polystyrene into their blue bins. If you’re not sure about what can or can’t go in, check the website or leave it out.”
Festive items especially may need a little extra care when being disposed of. Christmas cards, made from card only, without glitter or foil on, can be recycled in the main body of the blue bin.
Wrapping paper, unfortunately, cannot be recycled. As for Christmas trees, they can be dropped off at Household Waste Reception and Recycling Centres during normal hours.
If you can’t get your tree to a recycling centre, you can arrange a bulky waste collection. These collections cost £17.50, but as they can cover up to eight items, neighbours could join together and have eight trees taken away for just one charge.
When it comes to the waste generated by our Christmas merrymaking, nearly all food and drink packaging, tins, cans, bottles and jars can be put in your blue recycling bin, as can aerosols and flattened cardboard boxes.
Newspapers and magazines can be placed in the black caddy in the blue bin, along with envelopes and junk mail.
Any extra recycling can be taken to one of the Household Waste Reception and Recycling Centres at Beach Street in Deptford or Campground in Wreckenton. These centres will only be closed on New Year’s Day and Christmas Day.
If recycling bins are contaminated with too much non-recyclable rubbish, this can lead to large amounts of potential recyclable refuse being rejected and sent for energy from waste. A recent investigation found Sunderland’s recycling bins were contaminated with items such as fluffy blue slippers and even dead ferrets!
Christmas Bin Collections
During the holiday period, NORMAL waste and recycling collections will be moved back by one day. Collection dates are as follows:
- Week commencing 18th December – all collections as normal
- Week commencing 25th December – all collections will be one day later than normal
- Usual Tuesday 26th December collection will be revised to Wednesday 27th
- Usual Wednesday 27th December collection will be revised to Thursday 28th
- Usual Thursday 28th December collection will be revised to Friday 29th
- Usual Friday 29th December collection will be revised to Saturday 30th
- Week commencing 1st January – all collections will return to normal
More Information
For more information on the revised collection days, please visit www.sunderland.gov.uk/christmas-bindays.
To learn more about what can and can’t be recycled, please go to www.sunderland.gov.uk/christmas-recycling.
To book a bulky collection, please go to www.sunderland.gov.uk/bulky-waste.
For more information on Household Waste Reception and Recycling Centres, please visit www.sunderland.gov.uk/household-waste-centres.
(Featured image courtesy of Mike, from Flickr Creative Commons)
