Thank you for supporting your collection crews through this challenging year and for continuing to recycle. 

It has never been more important to reduce, reuse and recycle. We appreciate everyone’s efforts to recycle as much as possible this year.

Every year we see an increase in waste and recycling over the Christmas period.  Up until 20^th December, Recycle Devon’s “20 Day of Christmas” campaign is sharing a range of daily tips and ideas to help families keep waste and costs to a minimum.

Follow them @RecycleDevon for tips on waste reduction, not just at Christmas but throughout the year! If you follow them and pledge to reduce your waste during the ’20 Days of Christmas’ they’ll enter you into a competition to win one of 20 festive hampers full of local Devon produce.

If you do not already do so, please also consider following us @Teignbridge for daily tips on waste and recycling in the run up to Christmas and throughout the year.

We understand that you may have additional cardboard packaging this year due to the rise in online shopping.

Cardboard can be recycled weekly. Fold and flatten your boxes so that they fit into your green recycling box. We cannot collect additional card that does not fit in your recycling box. If you have too many boxes to fit into your box, please store them and feed them into your box over a few weeks.

Larger boxes can be taken to a cardboard recycling bank. If using a recycling bank, please fold your card and place it in the bank. Cardboard left outside of banks is fly-tipping. It also takes longer to empty the banks if they are surrounded by additional waste, which in turn reduces the frequency by which we can empty them. You can find recycling bank locations on our website.

Foil

You can recycle foil mince pie cases and sweet wrappers in your black recycling box. Just scrunch them up into a tennis ball sized ball so that they can be picked up by the sorting machines.

Christmas cards

Christmas cards that do not contain foil or glitter can be recycled in your green recycling box. Christmas cards that contain foil or glitter cannot be recycled. Where possible consider reusing glittery cards as gift tags for next year or write your shopping list on the back before disposing of them in your black general waste bin.

Wrapping paper

Wrapping paper can be recycled in your green recycling box with your cardboard. Due to the poor quality of the paper it cannot be recycled in your paper recycling sack. 

Christmas food waste

We often see an increase in food waste after Christmas. We would love to see a reduction in this this year. Love food hate waste have some great tips to help you plan for a food waste free Christmas this year, they even have meal planners you can download where they have done the planning work for you!

After you have done everything to reduce your food waste, remember it can be recycled weekly in your food waste container.

Our collection schedule adjusts over Christmas. If you are unsure when we will collect from you, please see our Christmas collection schedule or your bin sticker.

You can also find the dates we will collect from your property at: www.teignbridge.gov.uk/collectionday just pop your postcode into the search box.

If we are unable to collect as scheduled for any reason, please leave your bins and boxes out and we will collect them as soon as we can. 

Sometimes, extreme weather conditions such as ice or snow can make it very difficult, and dangerous, for our heavy vehicles and crews to access certain parts of the district. Roads that are especially steep, in low dips or very narrow may be particularly affected. If we experience adverse weather conditions, continue to put your bins and boxes out for collection as scheduled, they will be emptied as soon as it is safe to do so.

When collecting in cold weather sometimes the contents of bins can freeze preventing them from being fully emptied. Please see our website for advice on putting your bins and boxes out in cold weather particularly if you live in a more rural area.

We will have Christmas tree drop off locations around the district on the first two weekends of the new year. Just remember to remove any decorations before dropping them off.

Garden waste collection service subscribers can also recycle their real Christmas trees in their green garden waste bins provided they are able to fit inside their bins.

Instead of buying new appliances this Christmas why not buy a reasonably priced pre-loved option from your local recycling centre? find out more about the new scheme launched by Devon County Council to sell safety tested items for reuse.

If you are purchasing new electricals this Christmas or in the January sales, don’t forget to donate your old ones for reuse and remember that old batteries, mobile phones and printer cartridges can be recycled in your green recycling box. Just pop them in a clear plastic bag so that the items can be kept dry and be seen.