East Devon District Council are reminding residents to recycle all materials this Christmas.

See below the EDDC guide on how you can recycle wrapping paper, food waste and even your unwanted Christmas trees this festive season.

What Christmas recycling can go in your green box?
· Plain wrapping paper and Christmas cards (Nothing with any glitter on it).
· Textiles in a plastic bag, to keep them dry. EDDC works with The Salvation Army which reuses the items - they need to be in a good enough condition that you would buy them from a charity shop for us to be able to reuse them.
· Batteries, placed in a small clear bag, and small electrical items that fit inside your green box with the lid on – like hairdryers or kettles.

What should be put in your grey wheelie bins?
· Wrapping paper or Christmas cards with glitter, foil or plastic can be used to generate electricity. Putting these out for recycling could contaminate a whole lorry load of paper or cardboard!
· Plastic film such as film wrappers, plastic bags, crisp packets, cling film, polythene and pill casing can't be recycled
· Polystyrene – There is always lots of polystyrene around at Christmas in packaging. Pop it in your grey bin.

Don’t forget about the food:
All your food, cooked or uncooked, dog and cat food and tea bags and coffee grounds, can be placed in a single-use plastic bag (whether it is a bread bag, cereal box liner or carrier bag) and then put in your food caddy.

What about Christmas trees?
You can recycle your real Christmas tree in your green waste bin or you can take them here:

Monday, 3 January
· Axminster: West Street car park – 12:30 pm to 2.30 pm
· Seaton: Jurassic car park – 8.30 am to 11.30 am
· Exmouth: Imperial Road car park – 8.30 am to 2 pm

Tuesday, 4 January
· Broadclyst: Sports Pavilion car park –12:30pm to 2.30 pm
· Budleigh Salterton: Lime Kiln car park – 8.30 am to 11.30 am
· Honiton: Lace Walk car park – 8.30am to 11.30am
· Ottery St Mary: Land of Canaan car park – 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm

Wednesday, 5 January
· Cranbrook: The Cranberry Farm – 8.30 am to 11.30 am
· Sidmouth: Manor Road car park – 8.30 am to 12 pm

Your trees will be composted and used as a natural fertiliser by local farms or in our parks.

Cardboard galore
We are expecting lots of internet shopping as we all prepare for Christmas.

This produces a huge amount of cardboard packaging which we want to recover and recycle, however, if you have large quantities of cardboard, it will help our crews if you can spread the load by putting it out for collection over a number of weeks.

There are times when we may have to leave behind some cardboard for another collection if our vehicles are filling quickly.

If you do have large quantities of material that you would rather not keep until the next collection, then there will be the option for you to visit your local recycling centre.

Also, please remember to take out any polystyrene, bubble wrap or polythene bags from your cardboard packaging before putting it out for collection.

Unwanted Christmas presents:
Instead of binning them, why not donate these to a charity shop, sell/give away on sites such as Facebook Marketplace, Freegle, Freecycle or even re-gift them to others!

Councillor Geoff Jung, EDDC’s portfolio holder for Coast, Country and Environment, says "On behalf of EDDC and our recycling and waste crews I would like to wish all our residents a Happy Christmas.
I would also like to thank you all for co-operating and helping our crews in the most difficult period ever, with record tonnages of recycling, and extra health and safety precautions. In East Devon, we recycle more than most other districts in the UK, and that is down to you, so thank you, and please continue recycling.”