Waste and recycling collection dates will change over Christmas and New Year. There will be no collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day but there will be catch-up collections on Saturday 28th December, 4th and 11th January. Garden waste collections will stop for two weeks over this period. The last collections will take place on Friday 20th December and they will restart on Tuesday 7th January. Collections will be one day later than normal during this week.
Waste and recycling collection dates will change over Christmas and New Year. There will be no collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day but there will be catch-up collections on Saturday 28th December and 4th and 11th January. Garden waste collections will stop for two weeks over this period. The last collections will take place on Friday 20th December and they will restart on Tuesday 7th January. Collections will be one day later than normal during this week.
All household recycling centres will be closed from 1pm on 24th December and all day on 25th and 26th December and 1st January. Other than on these dates, the centres will open as normal on their specified opening days. All collections, including garden waste, return to normal from Monday 13th January 2020.
Cllr Bridget Wayman, Wiltshire council cabinet member for waste, said: "The Christmas and New Year period is a very busy time for our collections team, with lots more waste and recycling to collect than normal. The team will work tirelessly to collect all the recycling and waste generated and to get collections back to their normal schedule by 13th January."
"We want everyone to recycle as much as they can this Christmas; wrapping paper which scrunches into a ball and doesn’t bounce back, cardboard packaging, plastic sweet tubs, mince pie foil cases, drink cans, glass bottles and Christmas cards without glitter or plastic decorations can all be recycled. Local charity shops will be happy to receive donations of any unwanted Christmas presents.”
Additional recyclable material such as glass, cans, and paper can be placed in carrier bags alongside your black box (one material per bag helps the collection crews when out on their rounds at this busy time). Flatten cardboard and wash and squash plastic bottles and cartons and put their lids back on as this will help make more room in your blue-lidded bin.
People who pay to have their garden waste collected can put their real Christmas tree out alongside their garden waste bin on their first collection day in January so that we can collect it for composting, or they can support local charities by paying a small donation for a charity to collect. This is done via the Just Helping scheme at https://charityxmastreecollection.com/ For information about local recycling centres, recycling Christmas trees, collection days and advice on how to reduce waste and recycle as much as possible during the festive period visit wiltshire.gov.uk/rubbish-and-recycling
*The scrunch test is when you try to squeeze paper into a ball and it doesn’t stay scrunched – this indicates that it contains other materials which means we cannot collect it for recycling.