Recycling at Christmas
Collection day changes 
Your recycling collection day may be different over the Christmas period due to Bank Holidays. Find out how your collection day will be affected if you use the blue box and bag recycling and garden waste services (pdf 76kb) or the clear bag recycling service (pdf 159kb).
What to do with your Christmas tree
All the real Christmas trees we collect will be reprocessed to make mulch that will help bring shrubs and flowerbeds back to life in the spring.
Real Christmas trees can be collected for recycling alongside your garden waste collections, if you have one. Please remove the pot and all the tree’s decorations.
If you don’t have a garden waste service, bins will be provided across the borough. Your real Christmas tree can be taken to any of the following locations from January 5 to 31 2010
If you are disabled, elderly or don’t have transport and don’t have a garden waste collection service, you can arrange to have your Christmas tree collected. Appointments are available between January 5 and 29 2010. Please call 020 7525 2000 to book.
Top festive recycling tips
More waste is created during the Christmas period than at any other time of year. Remember to recycle all those extra glass bottles and jars, wrapping paper and cardboard gift boxes, sweet and biscuit tins.
Here are some top tips that can help you reduce the amount of waste you produce at Christmas and recycle as much of it as possible
- when looking for presents and bargains in the sales, remember to take reusable bags with you
- choose non-metallic wrapping paper, as most shiny paper is made from foil or plastic film so cannot be recycled
- a third of your kitchen waste can be composted so make sure all vegetable peelings from the Christmas dinner, teabags and eggshells go into your home compost bin or wormery
- leftover party foods such as quiches and sausage rolls can be frozen over Christmas and used in packed lunches for when you return to work or school
- squash your cans and plastic bottles and break down cardboard gift boxes to make more space in your recycling
- with new gifts being given and received this Christmas, have a clear out of unwanted items. Post your items on www.swapxchange.org or take them to a local reuse organisation or charity.
- recycle your greetings cards or reuse them to make next year’s gift tags
- when you take down your decorations, remember that real holly, ivy and mistletoe can be put in your garden waste
- attend the next Southwark give and take day at Charles Dickens School, 48 Lant Street, London, SE1, on Saturday, January 16 2010.
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