City centre festive recycling roadshow

(Date of issue: Monday, 21 December 2009)

Santa is going ‘green’ this Christmas and will be lending a hand spreading recycling messages to Carlisle residents today (Monday, 21 December).

Mr Claus will be decked out in a green costume and will make a special appearance in Carlisle’s city centre between 11am and 2pm. He will be urging local householders to follow his example and have a ‘green’ festive season by reducing, reusing and recycling.

A ‘green grotto’ will also be set up as part of Carlisle City Council’s recycling roadshow and will be decorated with recycled materials. Local children will be able to receive a free eco-gift from Santa when they bring along one item of recycling e.g. a plastic bottle or newspaper (while stocks last).

Cllr Ray Bloxham, Portfolio holder for Environment and Infrastructure, said:

“Every year, around three million tonnes of waste is dumped in the UK during the Christmas period – enough to fill 120million wheelie bins. We wish all our residents a Merry green Christmas and hope that after all the cards and presents have been opened, the Christmas meal and drinks have ended, residents remember to recycle their festive waste.”

The green roadshow has been organised in conjunction with Resource Cumbria. Advice on how to recycle in Carlisle over the festive period will also be available at the roadshow:

How to have a green Christmas:

• If you have a Greenbox, you can recycle the following items at the kerbside or at a local recycling point: wrapping paper; Christmas cards; clean and empty glass bottles & jars and clean and empty drinks & food cans. Please do not put anything in plastic carrier bags.
• You can recycle your real Christmas trees using your Garden Waste bin (place it beside the bin, on the day of your collection, if it is too big to go inside). In the New Year, to help speed up your garden waste collections, please do not place your garden waste bin out for collection unless it is at least half full.
• If you have Greenbags you can recycle the following items from the kerbside or from recycling points: cardboard food and packaging boxes (please place beside your cardboard bag if it will not fit in); hard plastic packaging; plastic bottles, plastic biscuit trays & other plastic trays/food tubs. Please put plastics in one bag and cardboard in the other as we cannot recycle mixed bags.

Festive Refuse and Recycling Collections

There will be some changes to the days you need to put out your refuse (wheeled bins and purple sacks) and kerbside recycling over Christmas and New Year:

Usual refuse and recycling date Festive collection date:

Collections return to normal from Monday 4 January 2010 onwards. Please refer to your recycling calendar and refuse calendar (for those who have wheeled bins) for collection dates.

Remember to recycle your real Christmas trees using your garden waste bin. You can place it beside the bin on the day of the collection, if it is too big to go inside.

For further information on recycling in Carlisle visit www.carlisle.gov.uk/refuseandrecycling   or telephone 01228 817200.