Gift the earth this Christmas with responsible recycling

December 22, 2020

With the festive season approaching, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and their recycling and waste contractor Veolia are encouraging residents to think green over this festive season.

Most of the seasonal items such as Christmas cards, cardboard and wrapping paper can all be added to your blue box, whereas sweet tins, glass jars and drinks bottles are 100% recyclable and should be added to your pink sacks, along with your usual plastic recycling

Leftover food can be frozen for use on another day. You can find some delicious leftovers’ recipes on www.lovefoodhatewaste.com. Any unavoidable food waste, like turkey carcasses, vegetable peelings and all other cooked or uncooked food waste can be recycled using your blue food waste bin.

Veolia will be collecting recycling and waste on an amended timetable over Christmas and New Year. Most collections will be back to normal from Tuesday 5 January, except for people living in flats (with communal bins) who will be back to normal from 11 January. For more information on revised collection dates and also information on household waste recycling centre opening hours, please visit www.southend.gov.uk/christmas.

Residents can also get their real Christmas trees collected for free, but please remember to remove all decorations. Real Christmas trees will be collected from Tuesday 5 January to Friday 29 January 2021. Please leave on the edge of your property.

For those who are already signed up to the garden waste collection service, Veolia will collect the tree on their scheduled collection day.

Cllr Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment and planning, said: “Go green this Christmas. There is always so much extra rubbish at Christmas time, so please ensure you recycle as much as you possibly can, and support Southend’s campaign to be a green borough by assisting our hardworking Veolia staff in keeping our streets clean and tidy. Overloading pink sacks, particularly with glass bottles, can cause them to split, leaving broken glass on the streets, so please do not overfill your pink sacks.

“We should all make it a New Year’s resolution to recycle everything you can and keep black bags to the absolute minimum, which will help the environment and reduce costs if we don’t have to pay for so much black bag rubbish to be landfilled.

“Veolia’s Christmas tree collection service will ensure your tree is composted but please remove and recycle your decorations for next year. Merry Christmas and stay safe everyone”

Residents are also reminded that bulky waste should be taken to either of the household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) within the Borough. Alternatively, a bulky waste collection can be arranged by calling Veolia on 0203 567 6955, or visiting www.southend.gov.uk/bulkywaste