Flintshire Council is urging residents to make it a cracker of a Christmas when it comes to recycling

Although Christmas is ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ it can also be the most wasteful.

Flintshire Council deals with a large upsurge in waste during the festive period including additional packaging, wrapping paper, jars, bottles, foil and food.

Across the UK, we will bin the equivalent of 108 million rolls of wrapping paper, 54 million platefuls of food – and use 189 million batteries over Christmas, a study found.

The council has published a handy guide to recycling over the festive period.

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— Flintshire Council (@FlintshireCC) December 13, 2019

There are some recycling items which can be easily forgotten:

• Food and drink cartons need only a quick rinse, and can be flattened to save space in your recycling – place in your plastics sack.
• Lots of people recycled their Christmas cards last year. All glitter-free greeting cards can be recycled. If possible, tear off the glitter section as well as any non-paper items like badges and batteries.
• Many of us will be recycling wrapping paper after Christmas. However which type can be recycled? Try the Scrunch Test: if you scrunch it and it bounces back, it can’t be recycled. Also please remove sticky tapes, labels and ribbons.
• Cardboard toothpaste boxes, toilet roll inner tubes, toothbrush packaging, boxes for face cream and other toiletries can all be recycled.
• Clean foil containers and foil food wrap, such as mince pie trays, chocolate coin cases, clean foil wrap can all be recycled, please keep it clean (free of food residue and grease), scrunched into ball and place in your cans an tins sack.
• Electrical and battery operated waste can be taken to any of the five Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) for recycling, please don’t place these items in the black bin.

Don’t forget the classics!

• Magazines, comics, newspapers, catalogues can all be recycled in the blue bag.
• Cardboard boxes please flatten it saves space.
• Empty aerosols, tins and cans can all be recycled in your grey sacks.
• Plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays can be recycled.  
• Food waste – replacement liners are available at the Flintshire connects centres, HRCs or tie a bag to the handle of the container on collection day.
• Food waste – teabags please continue to recycle these in your food waste, along with any plate scrapes and unusable left overs. Full list found here.

To check when your collections are due please use check your calendar or online here. 

You don’t have to wait for your kerbside collection.

Recycling can also be taken to one of the five Household Recycling Centres, which are open every day apart from Christmas day.

For further tips and ideas along with opening times and collection dates, please visit our website flintshire.gov.uk/recycle.