Suffolk: Recycling workers manage to keep up with festive waste

Recycling contractors have been working hard to ensure centres can cope without overflowing during the busiest time of the year.

During previous festive seasons recycling centres have been so busy that they were unable to cope with extra bottles and cartons that came their way over the Christmas and New Year period.

However this year recycling bosses made sure they were ready for the festive season – and made sure all the area’s bottle banks and other containers were empty and able to accept as much material as possible.

A spokesman for the county council said the festive season was always a busy time for recycling centres – even though they were only actually closed on three days: Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

He said recycling centres were aware that those celebrating ended up using more items that needed recycling – and that people were keen to clear them out of their homes as quickly as possible.

Kerbside recycling collections meant it was easier for people to recycle wrapping paper than it had been in the past and recycling centres were expected to be very busy over the next few weeks.

By the end of the week they are expected to be accepting more Christmas trees that can be turned into compost.

The spokesman said: “We are aware that in previous years there have been occasions where bottle banks have seriously overflowed over the Christmas period so we asked contractors to ensure they were emptied immediately before the holiday – and were then cleared out as often as possible.

“That seems to have done the trick – there do not appear to be as many cases of overflowing bottle banks, either at recycling centres or at the large supermarkets, across Suffolk this year.”