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Waste-free winter

Christmas can be a time of excess but it’s easy to reduce your festive rubbish

After opening all your Christmas gifts, there can sometimes be a bigger pile of paper, plastic and packaging than there is of presents.

Here are some ways you can help keep Christmas and New Year as waste-free as possible:

Carry a reusable bag for your Christmas food and present shopping
Give waste-free gifts: for the person who has everything, give vouchers or make a charitable donation for a change
Shop for Christmas gifts and fresh food that have less packaging
Give recycled gifts
Avoid metallic or glittery paper and opt for recyclable wrapping
Send electronic greetings by e-mail or buy recycled greeting cards
Buy rechargeable batteries for electronic toys and gifts
Only buy and cook the food you’ll need and compost vegetable waste
Wash up rather than using disposable plates, table cloths, cutlery and cups
Recycle empty cans and bottles in your red and blue boxes on your doorstep or at the hundreds of recycling points across the city.

WASTE COLLECTIONS OVER THE FESTIVE PERIOD

Once you’ve collected up all your festive wrappings, just what should you do with them all?

Red and blue box recycling

There will be no change to red and blue box collections, so please put your boxes out as normal.

Food waste recycling

There will be no change to food waste collections, so please put your bin out as normal.

Garden waste recycling

From December, garden waste moves to a four-weekly collection for December, January and February.

There will be no garden waste collections between 26 December and 6 January. The service will resume on Monday 9 January.

To find out when your garden waste will be collected over the winter months, check your calendar, enter your postcode at www.greenboxday.co.uk, e-mail waste@edinburgh.gov.uk or phone 0131 529 3030.

Community Recycling Centres

Edinburgh’s three Community Recycling Centres will be open every weekday from 8am to 7.30pm and at weekends between 8am to 6pm except 25-26 December and 1-3 January.

Recycling centres are located at:

Craigmillar – Old Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh EH16 4TB
Seafield – Fillyside Road, Edinburgh EH7 6RD – Please note that trade vehicles and commercial waste can only use Seafield Community Recycling Centre.
Sighthill – Bankhead Avenue, Edinburgh EH11 4EA.

Refuse collection

There will be no change to green wheelie bin/black sack collections, so please put your bin/sacks out as you would normally.

Trade Waste

There will be no change to Trade Waste collections, so please put your bin out as normal.

Special uplifts

There will be no Special Uplifts service between 26 December and 6 January. Normal service will resume on Monday 9 January.

Christmas tree composting

If you have a real Christmas tree, you can recycle it at your kerbside, no matter where you live.

If you have a brown garden waste bin, place the tree beside your bin on your next pick-up date.

If you live in a brown bin area, you should place your Christmas tree at your kerbside on your January pick-up day.

To find out your January pick-up day, enter your postcode at www.greenboxday.co.uk, e-mail waste@edinburgh.gov.uk or phone 0131 529 3030.

If you don’t have a brown bin, or live in a brown bin area, you can place your tree beside your communal rubbish bin on your normal collection day from Monday 9 to Friday 20 January.

To get your tree ready for collection, you should: