Council not giving extra allowance for those whose bin dates not changed

No point saying just buy recyclable wrapping paper when

• Typically the gifts you wrap end up in a different household. You need to ask people who gift to you to use recyclable paper.
• It's only recyclable if string is used instead of sticky tape so request that too.

If everyone did that it would be ideal but you'd still have the issue of recycling getting full.

A lot of supermarkets pledged last year not to sell wrapping paper with either plastic coating or with glitter/foil to make them more recyclable. It did seem a lot better this year, all my wrapping paper was marked with the 3 arrows.

I've gone over to a Biffa contract since the council started wanting everything sorted and a half dozen bins, got a huge red bin, chuck everything in and they sort it for recycling!

No extra allowance here either - you are just expected to fit it in, or hold any extra back and pop it in your bin after collection. The next one will only be a 10 day gap, so no issues over a build up. We are doing a tip run to dispose of gift wrap as soon as possible much of it is not actually recyclable.

Our bin is collected fortnightly on a Thursday
our recycling is collected weekly in a Thursday

Due to the day when Christmas/BD fell this year, our bin was collected as normal last Thursday but won't be collected until next Friday (slipped by 1 day)

our recycling does miss a week, this week and will be collected on Friday next week (slipped by 1 day).

Depending on where you are in the country, your local authority how big your family is, and the normal bin and recycle collection days, everyone has a different experience. So, most of our paper recycling, I just put on the bonfire as we live on the edge of a village. Next week there will be less paper for them to collect.

we compost all our veg peelings so we never put that out for collection. Any meat or fish scraps is wrapped in newspaper and put it in our normal bin.

it needs a bit more thought and planning at Christmas, but it's not the end of the world! I just think of the Birmingham bin strike, how have they coped with so many months of refuse piled up, that is far more extreme than the minor disruption of the Christmas and NY fortnight.

I'd like to! I just tried to book and there are no slots. Our tidy out isn't anything a charity shop would want - a whole bin bag of non recyclable run-out felt tip pens for example.

We have a couple of days to cover, but bins aren't full. We get weekly food, and bi-weekly black v. Recycling. We can always put out extra recycling inc. clothes, electricals, batteries etc

All our wrapping paper can be recycled..... It's just printed paper .....

Exactly this!! People commenting otherwise and saying they should anticipate cutting down etc obviously don’t have family and friends and are bitter!

That sounds really sensible, apart from the food waste.

Our council doesn't collect batteries (they can be recycled at the local Tesco) or electrical or metal. That has to be taken to the tip. And they won't take cardboard unless it's in the recycling bin, so you have to squash boxes and cut up large pieces of flat cardboard.

It may just be me, but I derive a weird satisfaction from jumping up and down on cardboard boxes until they're squashed flat.

Can't you go to the tip?

When I have a sort out I never put it out for collection unless it's a small amount. It is sold on, passed on for free, goes to tbe charity shop or the tip.

And for ours you need proof of address and then to book a slot, I have just looked, they have already gone for today, tomorrow and NY eve. Last time I went there was no food waste capacity it was things like clothes, furniture, electrical.

Once sellotape is used, the recyclable wrapping paper effectively becomes rubbish as it can’t be recycled then

Tips are open this week.

My bins are emptied on Tuesdays so the Christmas and new year closures don’t affect me.

DD’s bins are emptied on Thursdays. Last week it was changed to Monday, this week it’s Friday.

I’m obsessive about correct recycling. Both DD’s are really unconcerned about what should go in which bin. I thought their generation should be more concerned about it than mine.

I understand the bin workers need a holiday so I'm not complaining that it happens, but I simply don't believe all the smug people on this thread for whom it is not an issue and/or who are airily brushing it away saying we need to waste less or plan better.

Our food waste will next go out on Jan 4th and before that was collected Christmas eve. We haven't been wasteful! But we had 20 covers ADDITIONAL three course meals served over Xmas and boxing day, with a turkey carcass, huge even when stripped right down. This would be waste produced as well as our usual family amount of food in a normal working week. And you can't tell guests to clear their plates, and you must over-cater sligtly for different tastes.

Over the whole period,too, we have been at home the whole time, not out at school and work with a packed lunch, eating slightly more than normal, having more hot meals here and there, as it's, you know, Christmas. There have been tubs of sweets and snacks.

I can't believe any family, even on this thread, actually produce less food waste, recycling and black bin bags at Christmas than they do the rest of the year. And if they do, it's probably because they're out for Xmas dinner and outsourcing their waste to another household!

Also, I did a big sort out of my kids rooms yesterday and the kitchen cupboards and produced some recycling and black bin bag rubbish, as well as charity shop things of course. It's the only time of year I have time to do it and they are amenable to it as they have some new toys.
Yes, we can save it for the next 12 days until recycling comes but where?? Tiny garden, tiny kitchen, no room upstairs for big bags sitting there.

Plus we are having a party at new year like many people do ! We can store huge bags of rubbish in the middle of a party. And we don't have a big detached house with a side return outdoors or a bin shed or even a utility room or garage. Where do you expect urban terrace dwellers to put everything?!

Like I say, it's just one of those hassly things and demands some ingenuity. I am not asking for more collections. But it is a real issue not a pretend one.

This. It’s not a generous move by councils at Christmas but rather them reflecting there’s a longer gap between collections?

Though our council doesn’t allow this.

And people have guests over Christmas and big families, unsurprisingly, we are not all single people eating whatever's on yellow sticker at Waitrose at 5pm on 24th.

And the best way to manage it is to cut down the amount that you generate.

So much stuff comes with a ridiculous amount of packaging, it makes me really cross. I have a special loathing for stuff that comes in those clear plastic "blister packs". It's so unnecessary.

Ours doesn't. But we still don't have a full bin on bin day.

Monthly?? Oh my goodness. We have weekly recycling and normal bin. We would be absolutely overflowing after a month and no doubt rats etc too. How do you cope? Do you have kids?

We don’t have a garden. But we have more than enough room in our bin. I good news for us is our council are going looking into food waste collections so hopefully we will have that option soon.

my recyling bin is over flowing

Oh, we also don't have separate food waste, nor can I compost. We've only recently been able to recycle glass.

Our council doesn't do plastic recycling at all (still. In almost 2026). So the bin gets completely packed. It's awful and I don't think they can possibly be meeting their targets for recycling. They don't seem to care.