{"id":329168,"date":"2025-12-22T03:52:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329168\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T03:52:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:52:37","slug":"5-christmas-items-you-probably-arent-recycling-properly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329168\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Christmas items you probably aren’t recycling properly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every Christmas, Britain generates three million extra tons of waste<\/a>, according to government statistics<\/a> – and many of us make mistakes when it comes to recycling.<\/p>\n

For instance, you can\u2019t simply stuff wrapping paper into the paper recycling bin, as not all Christmas wrapping paper is recyclable, and some councils don\u2019t accept wrapping paper at all.<\/p>\n

But with huge amounts of waste in every household – out of the 175 million mince pies bought in Britain at Christmas, 74 million are discarded, using 175 tonnes of aluminium packaging – it’s worth paying attention to what can and can\u2019t be recycled.<\/p>\n

We spoke to leading recycling experts about the key mistakes British households make with Christmas waste<\/a> every year.<\/p>\n

Leaving sticky tape on wrapping paper<\/p>\n

Leaving sticky tape and other items attached to Christmas wrapping paper can mean the paper goes to landfill, says Dr Oluseye Oludoye, lecturer in environmental science at Teesside University.<\/p>\n

“Many households leave sticky tape, ribbons and labels on wrapping paper, but these are not recyclable and need to be removed,” he advises.<\/p>\n

Recycling advent calendars wrongly<\/p>\n

Many of us wrongly assume that empty advent calendars can be recycled “as is”, but that’s not actually the case, says Dr Christopher Carrick, Founder and CTO of bio-plastics manufacturer Lingin Industries.<\/p>\n

The trend for “adult” advent calendars in recent years has led to a rapid increase in plastic waste, he warns.<\/p>\n

“The average traditional chocolate advent calendar has over 21g of plastic in it, that’s a staggering 38 times as much packaging per gram of chocolate compared to a standard chocolate bar,” Carrick says. “This represents a staggering uptick in food packaging waste around Christmas.”<\/p>\n

The key to recycling them is separating the materials, as the plastic and cardboard will need to be processed separately, Carrick says.<\/p>\n

“The aluminium is obviously recyclable, but you should rinse off bits of chocolate first if you can,” he adds.<\/p>\n

Recycling plastic food trays wrongly<\/p>\n

Trays used to cook Christmas items such as pigs in blankets or vol au vents are often recyclable, but will not be accepted if they are messy.<\/p>\n

Dr Oludoye says: “Even when food packaging says it’s recyclable, it shouldn’t be placed in the bin if it’s greasy or contaminated.<\/p>\n

“Items with food residue can cause an entire batch of recycling to be rejected. Common culprits include greasy pizza boxes, foil trays with stuck-on food and plastic film lids mixed in with rigid plastics.”<\/p>\n

\"Detail<\/p>\n

Food trays are not recyclable if they still have food waste on them. (Getty)<\/p>\n

Recycling artificial Christmas trees<\/p>\n

Artificial Christmas trees are made of mixed materials, and cannot go in household recycling, Dr Oludoye explains.<\/p>\n

“As artificial trees are made from mixed plastics and metals, these can’t go in household recycling and should be taken to a specialist recycling centre if available,” says Dr Oludoye.<\/p>\n

“The best way to make your artificial tree sustainable is reusing it for as many years as possible.”<\/p>\n

\"Christmas<\/p>\n

Artificial Christmas trees can’t be recycled because they contain mixed materials. (Getty)<\/p>\n

Crackers and cards<\/p>\n

Crackers and cards are mostly made of paper and card which is safe to put in the recycling bin, says Dr Oludoye.<\/p>\n

But ensure that plastic components are removed before putting them in the bin.<\/p>\n

“Just remember to remove anything non-recyclable first, such as plastic windows, foil, ribbons or small toys.”<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every Christmas, Britain generates three million extra tons of waste, according to government statistics – and many of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[128680,128679,84,3462,128681,126937,59,1666,45244,56,54,55,128678],"class_list":{"0":"post-329168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-advent-calendars","9":"tag-artificial-christmas-trees","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-christmas","12":"tag-dr-oluseye-oludoye","13":"tag-food-packaging","14":"tag-gb","15":"tag-getty-images","16":"tag-recycling-bin","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-wrapping-paper"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}