Branch out and recycle this Christmas
Waste no time this Christmas – we’re here to tell you about recycling over the festive period, bin collection days and what to do with your tree when it’s all over.
As in previous years, there will be some changes to waste and recycling collections over the holiday period. Normal service will resume on 6 January. You can find the new dates here.
Haringey – part of the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) – and its waste and recycling partner Veolia are also urging residents to recycle as much of their festive rubbish as possible. But please be aware that wrapping paper should not go in your household recycling,
The NLWA advice is: “Wrapping paper is normally mixed with other materials such as sticky tape and decorations and these cannot be recycled. This makes it difficult to recycle wrapping into high quality paper. Instead, please reuse Christmas wrapping paper whenever possible or try a reusable gift bag or box instead. Foil, metallic and glittery wrapping paper and gift bags are generally not recyclable. Please don’t put this in your recycling bin.”
If you have a food waste bin, make sure those leftover sprouts find their way in. You can find out more about food waste bins here.
And, if you get gifts you’re not so keen on, no one needs to know! There’s a Wise Up to Waste Swish and Style event at the Salisbury Hotel, Green Lanes, London N4 1JX on 23 January. Swish and Style is a giant clothes swap. More information will be available here soon.
In North London, all Reuse and Recycling Centres will be open for their usual hours throughout the Christmas period, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, when they will be closed. The only exception to this is Hornsey Street RRC, which will open on Boxing Day. Haringey’s Reuse and Recycling Centre is in Western Road, Wood Green, N22 6UG.
Ian Kershaw, Client and Commissioning Manager for Community Safety, Waste and Enforcement, said: “From unwanted gifts to your Christmas tree, there are plenty of ways to recycle in Haringey over the festive period and into the New Year. The best thing we can all do is create less waste in the first place, but where you need it, please recycle as much as you possibly can. Help us to make Haringey, and the world, cleaner and greener this Christmas.”
When the time comes to take the tree down, real Christmas trees can be recycled in a number of ways here in Haringey – either composted as soil conditioner or being chipped for use in council gardens. All decorations and lights must be removed from the tree prior to being presented for collection or recycling.
If you normally put out your rubbish and recycling in wheeled bins for collection, trees can be put out for free with normal collections* (*placed by the bin) as long as they are cut into smaller pieces (maximum length of one metre or three feet and maximum trunk thickness of 10cm in diameter). If you have signed up to the garden waste collection service you can put your cut up tree in your brown bin or your biodegradable sacks.
It is essential that trees are cut into smaller pieces, otherwise they cannot be collected. Pots and soil are not collected from the kerbside.
If you have a communal bin, please check arrangements with your landlord. If you’re in a flat above a shop – or you don’t want to wait for your collection day – there are other options too.
Christmas trees can also be taken to Western Road Reuse and Recycling Centre or dropped off at designated sites at selected parks. Drop-off points are listed here.
ENDS