Christmas is a magical time, but it presents our recycling and waste collection teams several challenges each year. At SWISCo we need to think ahead and plan for Christmas, just like everybody else, but I expect our Christmas planner looks a little different to yours!
Before we can do anything, we need to think about how we can make sure that our collection teams are able to relax and spend time with their loved ones.
This year, we are lucky! Christmas has fallen at the weekend, and we don’t need to make any changes to our collection days to make up for time off. Your recycling and waste collections are scheduled to continue as normal over the festive period and the Recycling Centre will be open as usual, apart from Saturday 25 December and Saturday 1 January.
Even with no changes to the collection schedule, the amount of recycling and waste produced by households increases at Christmas and collecting it all can present a huge challenge to all involved.
Cardboard, glass and residual waste are usually very heavy at Christmas, and this means that our vehicles will need to be emptied more, with more trips back to Paignton for the collection teams. In previous years, this has caused some delays to collections.
If your collection is a little late, please make sure you leave your recycling, food bin and wheeled bin/seagull sack at the kerbside and use your nets to help prevent littering. Please make sure that your recycling is correctly sorted between the boxes and cardboard has been flattened as this will help speed things up for the crews.
This year we will be using a wheeled bin sticker to let residents know collection dates remain unchanged. The stickers will also include info on the SWISCo Christmas tree collection points which we run on behalf of Torbay council.
The Christmas tree collections will take place in January in Torquay and Brixham. Christmas trees can also be taken to the Recycling Centre, but don’t forget to book an appointment first. All Christmas trees are composted. You can read more information on the opening times.
Another seasonal challenge that SWISCo’s collection teams face involves Christmas wrapping paper, which can cause problems for paper recycling. So much so that our paper recycler has told us that they will not accept Christmas wrapping paper for recycling, meaning that you won’t be able to recycle it as part of your weekly recycling box collection, in communal paper bins or paper recycling banks in Torbay.
The materials used to make Christmas wrapping paper can include glitter, plastics and other non-paper decorations; the paper is often dyed or laminated; some wrapping paper is very thin containing very few good quality fibres for recycling; and there is usually a lot of sticky tape attached to wrapping paper, all of which can make wrapping paper non-recyclable or of a low quality.
With so many households generating lots of waste wrapping paper all at the same time, alongside a long-term trend of technology replacing paper use, means that paper recyclers demand a higher quality of paper at this time of year.
But there are some great alternatives to Christmas wrapping paper!!
Such as brown paper and reusable decorations. Providing any decorations are removed, brown paper can be recycled with your cardboard. Recycle Devon has some great ideas for other wrapping paper alternatives.
As with wrapping paper, Christmas cards often come embellished with glitter and other decorations, which can’t be recycled. The part of the card that has glitter or other items on it can’t be recycled with your cardboard. Many people choose to donate to a charity of their choice instead of sending cards, which is great for waste reduction.
For any cards that you receive, why not use them to make gift tags for next year?
Love Food Hate Waste have some great information, tips and recipes to help you to reduce food waste and get food savvy for Christmas.
With food being identified as a major contributor to carbon emissions, individual action to reduce food waste can really make a difference and you can save yourself some money too, so why not include it in your new year’s resolutions?
For food waste that can’t be avoided don’t forget to use your weekly food waste collection. The food collected is processed in Holsworthy, using anaerobic digestion which generates electricity which is fed into the National Grid and soil conditioner for use on local farms.
Happy Recycling and Merry Christmas 😊
A Christmas blog by Owen, Recycling support coordinator, SWISCO