For East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s bin collection teams, Christmas and New Year are the busiest times of the year.
The good news is the vast majority of the waste generated during the holidays – such as cards, wrapping paper, cardboard boxes and leftover food – can be recycled.
East Riding residents are officially among the top recyclers in the country thanks to their continued support of the council’s waste and recycling services.
Here the waste and recycling team is issuing festive advice to help residents recycle even more during the festive season.
What happens to our blue bin waste?
A new video has been produced to show residents the process of what happens to the waste they put in their blue bins.
The video shows why it’s so important to put the right items in the bin to make sure everything inside them can be recycled.
Problems can be caused by the wrong waste being put inside, including clothing, batteries, electrical items and vapes.
The footage has been produced by the council in partnership with Biffa, the company contracted to recycle the East Riding’s blue bin waste.
It follows a day in the life of blue bin waste, from its collection from your doorstep through to its sorting at a Biffa materials recycling facility at Hartlepool, and how the waste is separated for recycling.
The video can be seen at: www.eastriding.gov.uk/bluebin
Councillor Paul West, the council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “People in the East Riding are fantastic at recycling their rubbish, but there’s always more we can all do.
“Hopefully this new video explains the process blue bin waste goes through and it will encourage some people to leave out the rubbish we can’t recycle in the blue bin.”
Festive bin collections and recycling:
Bin collection dates will change over Christmas and New Year. Normal collections will resume from Monday 8 January.
Check your bin collection days on the East Riding of Yorkshire Council app, the bin collection calendar delivered to homes or at our website bins.eastriding.gov.uk
Household waste recycling sites are open from 10am to 5pm each day, but will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. They will close at 4pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Real Christmas trees can be recycled by placing them next to brown bins for collection in January or taken to household waste recycling sites. Please remove lights and decorations.
Blue bins can be used to recycle Christmas cards, envelopes, wrapping paper, cardboard and cardboard boxes, plastic tubs and trays, all glass and plastic bottles and jars, cans, tins, aerosols, tin foil, foil trays, books, newspapers, magazines, juice cartons, egg boxes.
Please make sure they are all empty, clean and put them loose in the blue bin.
Brown bins can be used to recycle all cooked and uncooked food waste, including plate scrapings, peelings, meat, turkey and other bird carcasses, meat bones, eggshells, tea bags and small amounts of sauces, creams and soups. Any garden waste can also go in the brown bin.
Free kitchen caddy liners to put your food inside are available at household waste recycling sites, customer service centres, libraries, mobile libraries and leisure centres.
Broken Christmas lights and other unwanted electrical items can be taken to the small electricals skip at household waste recycling sites.
Unwanted Christmas gifts can be donated to charity shops or taken to household waste recycling sites to donate them to the Reuse Shop for Dove House Hospice.
Batteries should never go in your bins. Instead, take them to supermarkets and local shops which have battery recycling collection boxes, or to any household waste recycling site.
Crisp packets and plastic bags can be recycled in some supermarkets.
Polystyrene can’t be recycled, so please place any in your green bin.
Clothing, shoes and textiles can’t go in your bins, so please take these to local clothing recycling banks or to charity shops.
Download the app:
Download the East Riding of Yorkshire Council app and join the 78,400 people who have already signed up to receive reminders for their bin collection days.
The handy app aims to help residents with their waste questions and explains which items of rubbish can go in which bin, in the Can I Recycle It? Section.
There are also services including Find My Nearest, a list of local services, an Eating Out guide, and the council’s Twitter messages.
Don’t be left out, download the East Riding of Yorkshire Council app from your app store, or via: www.eastriding.gov.uk/app and sign up for the bin collection alerts.
