Brown and blue Christmas

Eco mum Gillian Beadle urges Hull residents to use their brown and blue bins this Christmas

Gill and her daughter Leah made tree decorations by spraying pine cones

After Christmas Gill and Leah will chop up their tree and recycle it in their brown bin

The amount of waste we throw out goes up by a third over the festive season – not least because many of us eat and drink more than normal.
And while we're left nursing a sore head and bad stomach, we also find that our rubbish bins are overflowing.
Fortunately we can all recycle more than in previous years, thanks to Hull City Council's new brown and blue bin collection scheme.
And that means less waste will have to be buried in landfill sites – a process which harms the environment.
"Christmas is the perfect time to get to grips with using our new bins," says Hull's official eco mum Gillian Beadle.
"It's only a small change in our lifestyles, but if we all do it together we can make a big difference to the future of our planet."
Gillian and her daughter Leah (9) won the competition to be crowned Hull's eco family because of their fantastic commitment to recycling.
Here they share tips for recycling, reducing and re-using household waste this Christmas.

Cards

More than a million Christmas cards will be thrown out in Hull in the new year – but all of them can be recycled in your blue bin.
If you can access the Internet, you might want to send e-cards instead, but if you do send real cards, make sure they're made from recycled paper.
You can also re-use cards to make tags for presents >

Trees

Come January more than 15,000 real Christmas trees will also be thrown away – and these too can be cut up and recycled in your brown bin.
But if you don't have a brown bin because your home doesn't have a garden, you can take your tree to any of Hull's four household waste recycling centres, which are at Burma Drive, off Marfleet Lane; Wilmington, off Stoneferry Roundabout; Sutton Fields, off Amsterdam Road; and at Wiltshire Road, near the Hessle Road flyover

Christmas drinks

Tin cans are the most valuable waste items we throw out so it's vital we put them in our blue bins.
The steel and aluminium can be turned into parts for aeroplanes and refrigerators, or recycled to make more cans.
When buying cans such as lemonade or beer, it's best to get larger bottles rather than several small cans.
With plastic bottles, don't forget to remove the tops and squash all the air out of them – that way you can get more in your blue bin.
You should also crush cans before you put them in your blue bin

Food

Statistics show that the average family in Hull could save more than £400 a year by not wasting food.
You can find great recipe ideas to use up leftovers at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
And don't forget to put any food leftovers which you can't use for a future meal into your kitchen caddy.
When it's full, empty it into your brown bin

Gift ideas

When out Christmas shopping, re-use your plastic bags or take a reusable shopping bag.
If you buy electrical goods, try to find products that run off mains electricity, rather than batteries (and if you do need batteries, choose rechargeable ones) Where possible try to buy presents made from recyclable materials.
There are some great gifts out there including clothing, bags, drinking glasses and cushions (for more ideas visit www.recycledproducts.org.uk).
On Christmas morning, don't forget to open your presents carefully, so you can re-use the wrapping paper to wrap other presents, flower bouquets and bottles of wine or even to cover books.
Or you could treat someone to an 'experience gift' like theatre tickets or a cinema trip – which don't have any packaging.
After Christmas take any unwanted presents to your local school, play centre, or charity shop.
If you're doing a clear-out before Christmas, you can also recycle your old clothes by leaving them in a bag and leaving them next to your blue bin on collection day, or take them to any of the household waste recycling facilities mentioned above.

Competition winner

In the September issue of Hull in print we ran a competition asking for your suggestions on how best to re-use your old black recycling box. The winning suggestion was from Pamela Green, of Newland Avenue, who suggested using the black box as a 'retreat' for her cats (after cutting an entrance hole out at one end). Pam received four tickets to see the musical Dreamboats and Petticoats at Hull New Theatre. Runner-up was Mrs M. Purvis, of Marfleet Lane, who suggested using the box as a 'tidy box' in the garden shed to store gardening tools and spare plant pots.