What to do with your Christmas waste
Tin foil
Rinse and take to your local collection point for recycling.
Plastic
The only plastic we accept in our recycling bins is plastic bottles. Please place other plastic waste in your household waste (black) bin.
Some supermarkets and local co-ops have collections for 'soft plastics'.
Wrapping paper
If it is shiny, glittery or hard to tear, it is likely the wrapping paper is made from mixed materials and cannot currently be recycled. Please place it in your household waste (black) bin.
If your paper can be recycled, pop it in your green recycling bin. If you are careful with your unwrapping, you could reuse it to wrap presents next year!
Glass bottles/jars
Rinse and place in your black box or take to your nearest bottle bank.
Batteries
Place in a clear (sandwich) bag on top of your glass bottles/jars in your black box and we will recycle them.
Decorations/gifts
Donate any unwanted gifts/decorations to local charity shops, so they can be reused rather than disposed of.
Food waste
All bones, uncooked food and leftovers can be disposed of in your brown food waste bin, just wrap it in newspaper or compostable liners for us to recycle.
Cardboard boxes
Flatten any large boxes and you can leave them beside your green recycling bin to be collected for recycling.
Christmas lights etc.
Any electrical items which are broken or damaged can be recycled - take them to your nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC).
Christmas cards
Recycle greeting cards by putting them in your green recycling bin or cut them us and reuse them as gift tags on future presents!
Sweet tins and boxes
If sweet tins are made of metal they can go in your green recycling bin. If they are plastic, please put them in your black household waste bin.
Materials
If you've received some new socks over Christmas and want to get rid of some older one, you can take them and other textiles to a textile recycling bank - most HWRCs have them.
Christmas trees
Recycling collection points for real Christmas trees have been set up around the Borough. Trees can be dropped off between 4 to 17 January at the following collection points:
- Mortimers Road Car Park, Botley
- Hilliers Garden Centre, Woodhouse Lane, Botley
- Lakeside Country Park, Eastleigh
- Brambridge Park Garden Centre, Kiln Lane, Brambridge
- In-Excess Fair Oak Garden Centre, Winchester Road, Fair Oak
- Hound Parish Hall, Woolston Road, Netley
- Haskins Garden Centre, West End
If you subscribe to our garden waste scheme, we will collect Christmas trees on your scheduled collection day - just place it next to your garden waste bin. We can only collect trees that are up to 4ft in length, so please cut longer trees to this size.