A bit too much for your recycling boxes?

What you can do if you have extra recycling following the festivities

• Visiting a recycling site is the best way to get rid of large quantities of any materials, especially when public holidays or severe weather disrupt the usual recycling and rubbish collections.

• Make the most of your recycling containers. Crushing, squashing and flattening waste means you can fit more in your box – and crews more into the trucks. When you squash your waste it also makes it easier to sort.

Christmas lights or other broken electricals?

Don’t forget you can also recycle small electricals at the kerbside, first remove batteries and then put electricals into a carrier bag and separate batteries into a second, tied bag and put these on top of your boxes.

Christmas cards

This year’s Christmas cards can become next year’s gift tags. If you need to recycle them, use your black recycling box, but remove glitter and ribbons first. Cards can also be taken to any recycling site.

Christmas trees

• Compost at home, if you can.

• Garden waste subscribers: leave your tree, decoration-free, with your garden waste bin for collection – as long as it is no taller than 2 meters/6ft. Collections restart on Wednesday 8 January. Trees taller than 6ft will not be collected, as they are too large for collection crews to handle.

If your tree is larger than 6ft, or if you are not a garden waste subscriber, you will need to take it to the recycling site - trees can go in the garden waste skip.