Have Your-ELF a greener Christmas
The naughty and nice Elves have arrived in Rhondda Cynon Taf. They will be helping residents to find their inner green elves to recycle as much as possible over the festive period!
Residents can find out what can and can’t be recycled by following the online tips and advice and having a bit of clean, green fun along the way.
Small steps and the elves can have a MIGHTY BIG effect on recycling!
Small but MIGHTY changes, like rinsing items in leftover dishwater before placing items into clear recycling bags, mean that one small tin with leftover bean juice doesn’t ruin a whole bag of recycling. Or even worse, ruin an entire lorry load once collected.
It’s also important to know what, where and how to recycle your household items! Luckily, RCT Council has an A-Z searchable online guide available 24/7 for residents to use!
Recycling plays an essential role in tackling climate change, and just as those pesky elves show us, it’s often the little things that can make a HUGE difference in our homes (for good or bad)!
The festive period often includes lots of food and presents, and household waste is estimated to increase by over 30% during this time, which means lots of extra recycling!
Those naughty elves also have a lot to answer for with their midnight antics! From toilet roll jumping to banana splits and wrapping the kitchen cupboards, let’s remember to be good elves and recycle the toilet roll, rolls and wrapping paper in the CLEAR bags and recycle the banana skin in the food waste bin!
Residents can enjoy a GREEN holiday by recycling all their unavoidable food waste (turkey bones, plate scrapings etc), extra plastic bottles, wrapping paper, Christmas cards, real Christmas trees, tubs and trays, metal cans, glass bottles, jars, cardboard packaging and lots more, during the festive season. Please note elves are NOT recyclable.
A recent survey on Let’s Talk (the Council’s online engagement tool), showed that 100% of participants said that they use the Council’s recycling services, 97% said they do so weekly, and 95% said they use the food waste recycling service.
From April 2021 – April 2022, RCT residents recycled over 59,900 tonnes. The bad news is over 4,220 additional tonnes had to be thrown away due to contamination. That would have resulted in a further 6.5% recycled!
We collected a staggering 12,300 tonnes of food waste during the same period, BUT over 482 tonnes were contaminated and could not be recycled! That’s nearly 4% more food waste that could have been recycled.
Food waste accounts for almost 20% of what is collected monthly in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The good news is that, out of the recycled food waste, enough energy was generated to power around 1180 homes!
If residents continue these efforts over the festive period and take those small extra steps, we are on target to have ‘Our-ELFS a GREEN Christmas’.
Of course, the easiest items to recycle at Christmas are all the plastic and paper/cardboard packaging you’ll come across during the festive period.
After the presents are unwrapped and you’re wondering how to clear away the mountain of boxes, paper bags and wrapping paper, simply pick up your clear recycling bag and fill it up.
Please remember to put ALL wrapping paper into a separate CLEAR bag, including foil or glitter wrapping paper. Also, flatten any cardboard boxes and paper bags to make space in your recycling.
To free up even more space, you can also visit one of the local community recycling centres (CRCs) to dispose of your non-kerbside items such as clothes, old toys and electrical items. Please ensure you sort your waste before visiting.
Our CRCs are open from 8am until 5.30pm every day except for a 3.30pm closure on 24th and 31st December and complete closure on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and re-open on Monday 2nd January 2023.
Visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/ChristmasRecycling for full details.
