Christmas often means households have more rubbish than they normally do.
Rather than letting your household’s Christmas waste get out of control, follow our advice below so you can recycle most of it instead.
Recyclable and compostable waste
For more information, including what you cannot put in your bins, visit the what to put in each bin page.
Blue bins
The following can be put in your blue bin for recycling:
- all paper, magazines and card (except when shredded – put this in the green bin)
- wrapping paper (except for plastic giftwrap)
- christmas crackers (please remove plastic parts)
- greetings cards
- envelopes (including window envelopes)
- cardboard – please break up large boxes
- phone books and catalogues
- food tins and drink cans
- sweet or biscuit tins eg Quality Street or shortbread tins
- aerosol cans
- clean foil and foil trays
- metal lids from jars (please remove from jars)
- glass bottles and jars
- plastic bottles, including drinks, shampoo and detergent bottles – no lids please
- drink or soup cartons, eg Tetra Pak)
Green bins
The following can be put in your green bin for composting:
- all food waste – cooked, raw, dairy, meat and bones (please wrap in paper)
- grass and plant material e.g. real holly and mistletoe
- untreated wood
- sawdust / wood shavings, including from rabbit hutches etc
- soiled newspaper e.g. from rabbit hutch
- shredded paper
- tissues
- real Christmas trees (please cut up so that the bin lid closes)
Christmas trees
You can recycle your real Christmas tree in one of three ways:
- Cut it up and put it in your green bin, with the lid fully closed. We will not collect trees left next to bins or sticking out of them.
- Take it to Cherry Hinton Hall car park between Boxing Day and 20 January (trees can be whole)
- Take it to a recycling centre (the one off the A10 near Milton is the closest)
Extra recycling
If you have more recycling than you can fit in your blue bin, you can take extra items to your local recycling point. To find your closest one and which materials you can take there, check our recycling points map.
Most recycling points do not have facilities for cardboard, but this can be taken to recycling centres.
Extra rubbish
Any extra waste which you can’t fit into your black bin can be taken to a recycling centre for disposal (the one off the A10 near Milton is the closest).
Electrical gifts and batteries
If you are replacing electronic goods, there are some charities which are able to accept electrical items in working order. Check our A-Z directory and ring ahead to check what they can take. Failing that, small electrical items can be recycled at some recycling points, and all electrical items can be recycled at the large county recycling centres.
If you’re giving electronic gifts, make sure you get in a stock of rechargeable batteries and a charger before Christmas. If you do need to get rid of old spent batteries, remember you can recycle these by putting them in a plastic bag or a special battery bag and attaching this to the handle of your green wheelie bin. If you don’t have a green bin you can take them to battery banks around the city.
Read more about recycling electrical items.
Food leftovers
If you are stuck for what to do with festive leftovers, or wondering whether or not you can freeze certain foods to use later, visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for inspiration.
Resist the temptation to bin it – each home in the UK wastes on average over £400 a year on uneaten food!
Any food waste that you do have can be wrapped in paper and put in your green bin.
Christmas and New Year bin collections
You can check which day your bin is collected on.
| Usual collection date | Revised date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Usual collection date | Revised date | Change |
| 20–24 December | No change | No change |
| Monday 26 December | Tuesday 27 December | One day late |
| Tuesday 27 December | Wednesday 28 December | One day late |
| Wednesday 28 December | Thursday 29 December | One day late |
| Thursday 29 December | Friday 30 December | One day late |
| Friday 30 December | Saturday 31 December | One day late |
| Monday 2 January | Tuesday 3 January | One day late |
| Tuesday 3 January | Wednesday 4 January | One day late |
| Wednesday 4 January | Thursday 5 January | One day late |
| Thursday 5 January | Friday 6 January | One day late |
| Friday 6 January | Saturday 7 January | One day late |
| Monday 9 January | No change | Back to normal |
Icy road conditions may affect bin collections. Please check the service updates page for details.
Recycling centre opening times
For the recycling centre off the A10 near Milton:
- Monday to Sunday — 9am–4pm
- Christmas Eve — 9am-1pm
- Christmas Day — closed
- Boxing Day — closed
- New Year’s Day — closed
