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The choices you make with your food, gifts and decorations could help save you money as well as reduce your impact on the planet.
Put your recycling out on the right day
Recycling and waste calendars for the festive period are available to download on our website.
Some collection days change over the festive period to allow for bank holidays so please check yours carefully.
In a change to usual Christmas catch-up days, crews will this year collect from some areas on the Sunday between Christmas Day and New Year (Sunday 31 December).
Garden waste collections also become monthly during December, January and February.
Information about how to reduce waste and what to do with your Christmas recycling and waste is on our website.
Festive food
It can be easy to get carried away with the big Christmas shop, filling the fridge and cupboards to the brim.
However, food waste and costs can be reduced by shopping with a list, eating leftovers and recycling the rest.
Visit the Love Food Hate Waste website for recipes for leftovers and top tips on reducing food waste.
Get tree-cycling
Donate your real Christmas tree to help benefit three local charities as well as the environment.
Since we launched a tree donation programme in 2020 more than £87,000 has been raised for local charities, 12,000 trees have been repurposed and recycled, and
190 tonnes of carbon emissions have been saved.
Trees taken to Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm in Wraxall are chipped for land regeneration, and some are donated for animal enrichment within their habitat.
Trees will be accepted between Wednesday 3 and Sunday 21 January. They should be left at the drop-off point in the main car park strictly during these dates and zoo opening times only (10.30am to 4pm).
St Peter’s Hospice, headquartered in Long Ashton, will collect trees in return for a donation on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 January from selected postcodes across Clevedon, Nailsea, Portishead and Bristol: BS4, BS5, BS7, BS9, BS15, BS16, BS20, BS21, BS30, BS41 and BS48. The collection must be prebooked on its website.
Weston Hospicecare’s Pines for Pounds scheme collects trees in return for a donation on Saturday 6 January in the BS22, BS23, BS24, BS25, BS26, BS27, BS29, BS40, BS49, TA8 and TA9 postcode areas. Prebook on the website.
Christmas trees can also be taken to our recycling centres where they will be recycled as garden waste. Check our website for advice and opening times.
Residents signed up to the garden waste collection service can also put their trees out for collection when the service begins again from Monday 15 January.
Trees, up to two metres in length and without the pot and all decorations, can either be chopped up and put in your green garden waste bin or left whole alongside the bin.
Green gifts
Homemade or second-hand gifts can be just as thoughtful and appreciated as buying brand new items.
Gift experiences, such as tickets to a show, a meal, or day out, would also reduce demand on physical resources and subsequent waste.
If you do buy an item, think about what it’s made from or where it’s come from.
Try to avoid single-use plastic and fast fashion, and source what you can locally to avoid a large carbon footprint. Buying unique products from a local business rather than an internet giant will also help boost our local economy.
We can’t accept any wrapping paper in your kerbside recycling boxes so please bear this in mind when wrapping your presents.
Wrapping paper is difficult to recycle and it’s often mixed up with unrecyclable foil, glitter, ribbon, and tape.
If the amount of incorrect material is too high, the whole load is rejected by the paper mill, meaning higher costs and more transport emissions.
A popular alternative is to use plain brown paper, which can be recycled with cardboard.
Using jars, tins or other reusable baskets and gift bags are other creative ways to wrap your gifts.
For regular updates and news throughout the year, follow our recycling and waste team on Facebook or X.