Christmas recycling
Below you’ll find your revised collection dates along with advice on what you can recycle in your household bins this festive season and how to dispose of your Christmas tree.
USUAL COLLECTION DAY |
REVISED COLLECTION DAY |
| Wednesday 25 December | Friday 27 December |
| Thursday 26 December | Saturday 28 December |
| Friday 27 December | Monday 30 December |
| Monday 30 December | Tuesday 31 December |
| Tuesday 31 December | Thursday 2 January |
| Wednesday 1 January | Friday 3 January |
| Thursday 2 January | Saturday 4 January |
| Friday 3 January | Monday 6 January |
| Monday 6 January | Tuesday 7 January |
| Tuesday 7 January | Wednesday 8 January |
| Wednesday 8 January | Thursday 9 January |
| Thursday 9 January | Friday 10 January |
| Friday 10 January | Saturday 11 January |
Find out more about your collection dates and download your bin calendar.
Christmas tree collections
This year we are pleased to again be supporting and promoting the charity collection of trees by Pilgrims Hospice. The collection takes place between Friday 10 and Sunday 12 January 2025. Although it is a free service, people who take advantage of it are encouraged to make a donation to this excellent local charity. Register for a collection online by Sunday 5 January.
The RNLI at Whitstable are also offering a tree chipping service in exchange for a suggested donation to the RNLI of £3. Simply take your tree to Whitstable Lifeboat Station at Whitstable Harbour on Sunday 12 January 2025 between 9am and 1pm. No pre-booking is required.
Residents who do not go down the charity route, but who are subscribers to our garden waste service, can put their tree out to be picked up on their first green bin collection in January 2025. This will be in either week commencing 20 January or 27 January, depending on which week you are on.
Ideally the tree would be chopped up and placed in the bin, but if this is not possible, please leave it out next to the garden bin in the usual place for waste collections so it is visible for our crews. You can subscribe to the garden waste service on our website.
For non-subscribers, trees can be taken to Kent County Council’s household waste recycling centres – aka ‘the tip’ – in Canterbury and Herne Bay. We are no longer providing a kerbside collection for people who do not subscribe to the garden waste service. Sending our trucks and crews out to drive round looking for trees that may or may not be there is not environmentally friendly and is not an efficient use of our resources.
Garden waste
There will be a break in garden waste collections between 20 December 2024 and 17 January 2025. This subscription year will end on Friday 14 March 2025 with the next year beginning in early April.
While collections are paused over winter, you can still take your garden waste to your local household waste recycling centre.
Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs)
Kent County Council runs the household waste recycling centres in Canterbury and Herne Bay. You can check festive opening hours and book a slot on KCC’s website.
Over the festive season, we tend to generate around 30% more waste than usual and, with many seasonal items purchased, it can be hard to know if an item can be recycled and where it should go.
To help get Christmas recycling sorted across our district, please find a list of things you can recycle in your household bins and boxes. There’s also some key advice on items that we cannot accept at home but may be accepted for recycling or donation elsewhere.
Blue bin or box
Along with your usual recycling, please find a list of some seasonal items that you can recycle in your blue bin or box. You can also see the items that cannot be accepted in your household bin.
YES PLEASE
✅ Advent calendar (plastic only)
✅ Plastic trays, punnets and pots
✅ Tins and drinks cans
✅ Glass bottles and jars
✅ Foil (scrunched up to a tennis ball size)
✅ Mince pie cases
✅ Sweet and biscuit tins and tubs
NO THANKS
❌ Artificial Christmas trees
❌ Batteries
❌ Baubles and tinsel
❌ Flexible plastics
❌ Toys
❌ Polystyrene
❌ Wrapping paper
❌ Fairy lights
❌ Sweet and chocolate wrappers
Red bin or box
Along with your usual paper and card, there are many things you buy at Christmas that can be recycled in your red bin or box. Please note that wrapping paper and cards can be recycled if they are plain – but if they have glitter, foil or bows on them, these need to be removed before the card is placed in the recycling bin.
YES PLEASE
✅ Advent calendar card (remove plastic and foil)
✅ Plain wrapping paper (no glitter or foil)
✅ Plain Christmas cards (no glitter, bows, foil)
✅ Cardboard delivery boxes
✅ Card gift boxes
✅ Plain Christmas crackers (all contents removed)
NO THANKS
❌ Polystyrene
❌ Paper covered in glitter or foil
❌ Bows and ribbons
❌ Sticky tape
Food caddy
We generate 270,000 extra tonnes of food waste over the Christmas period. While avoiding food waste by careful planning is the best way to save money and help the environment, recycling or composting your unwanted food is the next best thing.
YES PLEASE
✅ Leftover food
✅ Peelings and scraps
✅ Tea bags and coffee grounds
✅ Eggshells
✅ Cooked and raw meat and bones
NO THANKS
❌ Plastic bags
❌ Liquids
❌ Wrapping
Recycle Now offers a fantastic Recycling Locator tool that allows you to locate all recycling points outside of your home based on your postcode and the item you specifically wish to recycle. For example, flexible plastics can be recycled in many supermarkets as can batteries.
Please remember you can also use your local Household Waste Recycling centre for items like electricals, textiles and green waste. For opening hours and more information about what you can take, please visit Kent County Council’s website.
Thank you for recycling this Christmas!
Published: 16 December 2020