Dreaming of a waste-free Christmas

Household waste increases by a third over the festive season – so here are a few tips about recycling, reducing and reusing from Hull City Council's Waste Management Team

Get a black box

You might drink more beer, wine or fizzy pop over Christmas – but where do you put the empty cans and bottles. The answer is in your black box. It's collected by the waste management team every two weeks. To get a free black box, or to find out collection dates in your neighbourhood, call 300300.
By the way, you can also put aerosols and aluminium foil in it too!

Cut down on cards…

...by sending an email greetings card instead of a paper one. If you can't do without sending a card, make sure the ones you buy are made of recycled paper. Charity shops sell a good range of cards made from recycled paper.

Use your blue bin

This is a good place to put leftover Christmas wrapping paper. It's also used for recycling newspapers and magazines, plus other paper products like catalogues, telephone directories and junk mail. It's collected every month. For collection dates, or to get a blue bin, call 300300.

Reuse your wrapping paper...

...for wrapping up other presents such as flower bouquets and wine bottles. Or use it to cover books (as long as you've removed it carefully from the original presents).

Bright spark

If you buy electrical goods, try to find products that run off mains electricity, rather than batteries. If the presents you buy need batteries, choose rechargeable ones over disposables, where possible. That way, you create less waste.

What a carry on!

Say no to unwanted carrier bags. When doing your Christmas shopping, reuse your plastic bags or take a reusable shopping bag for picking up your Christmas gifts.

Give to schools

Take any unwanted presents to your local school, play centre or charity shop.

Buy recycled

Buy Christmas presents made from recyclable materials. There are a huge variety of these products available, including clothing, bags, drinking glasses and cushions. For some ideas visit www.recycledproducts.org.uk *

Reuse Christmas cards...

...by using them to make tags for presents.

Make it a large one!

Choose larger containers for drinks like lemonade or beer. A large bottle results in much less waste than several small cans.

A Special Treat

Treat someone to an experience gift - like theatre tickets, flying lessons, balloon ride or cinema trip. These are great personal gifts and don't use up lots of packaging.

Recycle more

If you have unwanted clothes, remember you can recycle them through your black box (if they are bagged), as well as at community recycling facilities and at Burma Drive and Wilmington.
And don't just throw away your old mobile phone - because it can be recycled at Burma Drive and Wilmington too, or you can get money for it through the Envirophone campaign (visit www.envirophone.com *).

Recycle your cards and tree

Don't miss January's issue of Hull in print for tips on recycling cards and trees.

Make a resolution

Make your New Year's Resolution to cut down on the amount of waste you produce and recycle as much as you can – because recycling is for life, not just for Christmas.