Your collection day for Recycling & Waste will change over the festive period, please make sure you check your collection date.

Please present your containers at 6.30am on your designated day, at your normal collection point.

 

Check your festive collection date (opens new window)

 

Christmas facts

Did you know...

• Recycled 'real' Christmas trees are shredded into chippings which are then used locally in our parks or woodlands. We have drop off points in St Helens (see below)
• The packaging paper we consume every year is the same in weight to 124 London Eye's.
• If every household that cooks a turkey over Christmas puts the clean turkey foil in your white bag, this would save enough energy for every household in the UK to watch over one days' worth of Christmas TV.
• Glass drinks bottles and jars can all be recycled again and again, will always be as good as new and could turn up for you to use next Christmas!
• Recycle 6 mince pie foil cases and save enough energy to watch the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special! They go in your white bag.
• The UK throws away over 13,000 wheelie bins of mince pies a year which if recycled could save the same energy as powering 356 households with electricity for 365 days.
• The average household generates 3.2kg of food waste each week. This is the equivalent of 18 million Christmas turkeys in the UK.
• In the UK food that could have been eaten but gets thrown away (4.7 million tonnes) is worth around £17 billion. This is around £80 per month for the average family with children.

At St Helens Borough Council unfortunately you cannot put wrapping paper or cards in your blue bag. This is because most wrapping paper is now foil or plastic, and cards often come with glitter and glue, they would contaminate the paper stream. Why not turn your old Christmas cards into gift tags for presents, you just need a ruler, a cutter/scissors and a hole punch! Also as an alternative use brown wrapping paper, as this is recyclable and can go in your green bag. Tissue paper can be recycled for other gifts, if its a bit beyond its reuse, then it will have to go in your brown bin, bows and ribbons, also go in your brown bin.

Please flatten your clean cardboard to make sure you can fit as much as you can into your green bag. You can have extra bags if you need them, order some additional containers, or pick them up from up from the Town Hall Hub Monday to Friday 9am-5pm, our libraries also stock them. Have you had a lot of packaging from your Christmas gifts and not sure how to recycle it, you can check this on our what goes where page. If you got a new outfit for Christmas, why not have a clear out and recycle your unwanted clothing? To check where our textile banks are, have a look at our locations around the Borough check my nearest textile bank

Real Christmas trees can be recycled and turned into chippings for parks. Drop off points are: Sutton Park on Marina Avenue, Victoria Park on Bishop Road, Sankey Valley Visitor Centre Blackbrook Road car park, Mesnes Park on Park Road North car park, Taylor Park Grosvenor Road car park, Moss Bank Road open space. The last drop-off date is Friday 17th January 2025 You can also take them to your local Household Waste Recycling Centre.

If you have  an unwanted artificial tree you no longer want, or spare decorations (get rid of the clutter!) why not donate them to a charity shop for re-use? You can also recycle broken fairy lights at your local Household Waste Recycling Centre in the small electricals section.

Your left over food can be turned into countless dishes, one of the most common ones being bubble and squeak! You can get some ideas for your leftover veggies, spuds, and meat from Love Food Hate Waste website; it has loads of recipes for you to try out.

 

It also has the ultimate guide to Christmas food planning! Alternatively freeze your leftovers for another day, if you do have leftovers that's not for freezing, put it in your food caddy. Don't forget you can recycle your turkey wishbone!

If you would like to order a food caddy or any other containers you can do it online.