Over the festive period, London will use enough wrapping paper to stretch all around the equator and one million Christmas trees will light up London’s homes. The Mayor Boris Johnson is calling on Londoners to make sure they recycle all their Christmas waste in order to save the capital cash.

When the presents have been unwrapped, the Christmas dinner devoured and Twelfth Night is upon us, Recycle for London, backed by the Mayor, is urging Londoners to recycle rather than bin the rubbish generated over the festive period. This avoids local boroughs forking out for costly landfill charges - it costs 25 per cent more to dispose of black bin rubbish than to recycle - and would save around £2.7million.

Over the two weeks of Christmas and New Year, London will generate an extra 29,000 tonnes of household rubbish:

• An estimated 2,000 tonnes of glass is thrown out in the capital over the festive period – from champagne and sherry bottles to mincemeat and cranberry sauce jars. Recycling all of them could save 630 tonnes of carbon being produced, which is equivalent to taking around 195 cars off the road for one year.
• London throws out an estimated 675 tonnes of tin foil, which weighs the same as 450 Mini cars. You can drop off waste foil at your nearest recycling bank or enter your postcode on www.recycleforlondon.com to see whether your kerbside collection scheme accepts it.
• Around 75 tonnes of Christmas tree lights are discarded in London. If they are in good working order you could donate them to a charity shop.
• Wherever you are in London there is no need to throw out your Christmas tree as every London borough offers a Christmas tree recycling service. The Greater London Authority will chip the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree for recycling on January 5th and the chippings will be used as fertilizer.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: ‘If we all recycle the discarded trappings of Christmas we can save our councils a whopping £2.7 million, which could instead be spent wisely elsewhere. This makes recycling an even more attractive option, so if you are pondering a worthy New Year's resolution, make it to help us become a less wasteful city.’

Recycle for London is running its ‘Nice Save’ campaign encouraging Londoners to recycle rather than bin their rubbish. This helps to free up money that local councils could spend on other, vital local services, especially in times when public finances are stretched.

London currently recycles 32.5 per cent of its household rubbish it is estimated that 60% of the average bin can be recycled. 

Christmas cards - recycle them!	The dates that your council collects recycling from your home, may change over the festive period, check your council website for more information. Over the course of the last year and into the new year over half a million households (520,000) living in flats will have improved facilities thanks to funding from the London Waste and Recycling Board.
	£5 million is being spent across 26 boroughs to improve recycling facilities in flats such as, recycling collection points on communal floors, waste chutes converted to recycling chutes and food waste is now being collected for the first time in many estates. Wrapping paper - recycle it!

December 19th, 2011