WITH the festive season well and truly upon us, Waverley Borough Council is asking residents to get into the Christmas recycling spirit by giving their recycling bins a good stuffing, as well as their turkeys.

There are lots of items all around the home that can be recycled this Christmas, from wrapping paper, greetings cards and gift tags to cardboard boxes, cans and empty drinks bottles. Then there are the unusual suspects such as foil trays found in the kitchen, toilet roll tubes from the bathroom and not forgetting those empty perfume and aftershave glass bottles from the bedroom.

To help see which bin items go in, either visit Waverley’s website and try the recycling search tool or download the Recycle For Surrey app for phones and tablets.

Synthetic Christmas trees can be taken to recycling centres while real trees can either be planted in gardens for next year or, for subscribers to Waverley’s garden waste collection service, put out with garden waste on the first collection after Christmas.

There will also be recycling sites for real trees set up from Wednesday, December 28. There will also be changes to bin collection dates over the Christmas period.

Collections up to and including Friday, December 23 will run as normal, with changes beginning from Monday, December 26. Normal collections will resume on Monday, January 2. A table of Christmas collections dates is available online and on the back of recently delivered recycling guides and in Your Waverley magazine.

Alternatively, sign up for text reminders online at www.waverley.gov.uk/bintext.

Jim Edwards, Waverley’s executive member for environmental services, said: “This really is the season to recycle. Not only will it help the environment, by taking less of your waste to landfill, it also means your old materials can be re-used to make new ones, reducing the need for raw materials. Your food waste can even be used to create energy.

“As you’ll be spending lots of time together with your family, it’s a great time to get your youngsters into the habit of putting their recyclables into the blue bin and teach them the benefits of putting their peelings into the food waste caddy.

“Why not make it your New Year’s resolution to recycle more? The Christmas period is a time to come together and if we all recycled more we could make a real difference. Whatever you do this holiday, Waverley wishes you a very, merry, Christmas and a happy, recycling filled New Year.”

For more tips about Christmas recycling visit www.waverley.gov.uk/xmasbins.