Christmas waste and recycling Stoke-on-Trent
Bin men in Stoke-on-Trent can look forward to a well-earned break this year – as the city council has announced its revised bin collection dates for the Christmas period.
Residents will receive normal collections up to and including Christmas Eve (Thursday 24 Dec), and bins which would normally have been collected on Friday (Christmas Day) will be collected on Wednesday 30 December.
Other collections will not start again until Monday 4 January – and households can check the dates for the new collections in their bin calendars which will be delivered before Christmas.
Given that there is likely to be extra waste generated over the Christmas break, residents can leave up to two additional black domestic sacks of household waste with their grey bin, and one additional box of mixed recycling with their blue bin, which will be collected when the service resumes in January.
Councillor Carl Edwards, cabinet member for housing and environment said: “Our bin men do a fantastic job – walking on average 70 miles per week in all sorts of weather. We think they deserve some time off at Christmas to spend with their family and recharge the batteries. They’ve worked all through Covid and both lockdowns, they have emptied 57,575 tonnes of waste over that time which is a 20% increase compared to the same time last year. We forget that they are front line workers like many health professionals and they help keep the city going. Our tips will be open after Boxing Day until New Year’s Eve for those residents who want to dispose of their rubbish before we start collecting again – opening times can be found at stoke.gov.uk/waste.”
Residents are reminded that many Christmas related products can be recycled – most cards are paper based and can be recycled in the blue wheeled bins (no glitter ) along with cardboard boxes. But due to the make-up of wrapping paper and the amount of sticky tape and embellishments that cause problems at recycling plants, residents are asked to dispose of wrapping paper in their grey bin. Real Christmas trees can be recycled at the tips.
Deliveries for replacement wheeled bins will be paused from 25 December 2020 and will resume from 11 January 2021, while brown bin waste collections will start again in April 2021.
To help protect bin crews and maintain waste collection services, residents are asked to follow the guidance issued by Government if they are self-isolating or displaying symptoms of coronavirus.
