Westminster goes green for Christmas waste collections

This year, Westminster’s dreaming of a green Christmas…

As Christmas draws closer, Westminster City Council and Veolia’s waste collection vehicles have been transformed into Christmas sleighs, looking to spread not only Christmas Cheer, but also essential recycling advice to residents and local businesses.

Throughout the festive season, people in Westminster will see Santa’s green elves collecting around 18,000 tonnes of waste across the city, the highest total amount of waste seen throughout the year. Sadly, only 22% of all that waste will be recycled and much of that is due to it being placed in the wrong bin or mixed in with non-recyclable materials. The new green sleighs are helping spread a green message to shoppers, businesses and residents across the city and encouraging everyone to take a few moments to sort and recycle what they can.

Cllr Tim Mitchell, Deputy Leader (Delivery) said;

“With festive cheer comes a vast increase in waste across the City, as thousands of wrapped presents quickly become thousands of tonnes of rubbish for our contractors to collect.

“We’re encouraging everyone to recycle as much as they can over the Christmas period, by making a small effort to sort recyclable materials, we can work together to make the city cleaner and greener year-round.”

The biggest issue facing the council is a lack of recycling. Unfortunately, many people are mixing their recyclable waste with general waste, and then throwing this away together as general waste. Over the festive period we are encouraging everyone to recycle as much as possible this Christmas, and have produced some handy tips to improve understanding of what can be recycled around Christmas:

Mixed recycling can include;

Cards without glitter, badges, or batteries
Paper gift wrap, wrapping paper, and paper gift bags – with any strings removed
Glass food jars – just give them a quick rinse beforehand
REMEMBER – Westminster operate a kerbside collection service for mixed recycling. Please ensure that your mixed recycling items go into your bags, boxes, or bins to be collected.
There are also 26 recycling points across Westminster to recycle your real Christmas Tree.

These new green sleighs are helping spread a green message to shoppers, businesses and residents across the city. Our festive message is to close the waste loop by improving participation with recycling, please help us by following the guidelines and recycling as much as possible.