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We know it’s very early to be discussing Christmas, but when it comes to preparing for the winter season, you may be placing your priorities on presents, heating or winter clothes, rather than your waste management requirements, but the festive period can bring many changes to waste management requirements and it’s important to be ready.


 

 

Christmas Waste Collection Differences

The first major change will be the days in which your bin is collected. For most bin collections, this may be up to two or three days later than usual from Christmas Day until the middle of January. For example, collections on the 25th December could be moved to the 27th instead, assuming both are weekdays.


 

 

Different Amounts of Waste

Aside from the typical waste and recycling, it’s estimated that businesses create up to 30% more waste over the festive period. For businesses in the food and leisure industry, this can be an increase in the amount of food waste and glass created by all of those Christmas work parties. Retail businesses may see a rise in waste packing material as their inventory increases, and if they offer a bespoke Christmas wrapping service, and even businesses in health and beauty industries can see an increase in general waste as people prep themselves for Christmas festivities.


 

 

Why Plan in Advance?

The main reason for making your Christmas waste management plan a little early is pretty simple, what with the difficulty of balancing all the other aspects of Christmas-time business issues (staff shifts, marketing strategies tailing off, people may be taking their foot off the gas slightly) whilst also focusing on how to dispose of the extra waste that piles up during this time of year.

 

Also, if you require additional collections, or if you require any changes to be made to your collection schedule it’s important to let your provider know as early as possible. Additionally, if you’re business is going to be closed over the festive period you may want to bring your collection schedule forward to stop any smelly, or unattractive waste sitting around in your bins because no-one likes the smell of garbage.

 

Collection routes for the Christmas periods are often arranged weeks in advance and to make sure your requirements are accommodated you must contact your service provider at least a month in advance.


 

 

How to Manage the Christmas Waste

We have already covered aspects specific to Christmas waste and large amounts, but there are some additional steps to be considered when dealing with winter waste. These include:

 

  • Assess the amount of waste your business will probably produce – Make changes to your bin service based on the data, such as whether two small bins will be better for disposing of and segregating your waste than one large general bin.
  • Reschedule bin collections – You may need to book more frequent collections in advance, particularly for days before new deliveries so there is free space for the packaging of new bulk products.
  • Provide recycling training for staff – A basic but important tip. Train your staff for specific roles in waste management, like having them monitor recycling stations around the site or to inform specific staff members of information like changes in bin collection dates.

 

Going even more specific, there are tips for dealing with more specific types of waste:

 

  • Packaging – Take care of what kinds of paper are used for the packaging, as laminated, glossy varieties aren’t recyclable, nor are the ribbons attached to them.

 

Making sure to dispose of the unsold present wrapping or the additional decoration of festive products need to be disposed of accordingly.

 

  • Cardboard – The disposal methods remain the same as at any time of year. Though boxes may be filled with additional decorations for Christmas, any foreign element aside from liquid stains can be easily removed when the cardboard reaches a recycling centre.
  • Food/Kitchen Waste – For the food industry, focusing on either using recyclable options such as paper plates and plastic cutlery or hiring additional staff if managing a restaurant to deal with the limited supplies in the kitchen. Most food waste will be provided extra disposal options such as several councils offering food waste bins for the large amount that will form or recommend options of composting where available. Be careful, however, because councils bin 90 per cent of food waste which could be recycled.
  • Decorations – Most decorations such as baubles can’t be recycled, leading many to invest in new recyclable options rather than the traditional decorations. Plastic trees cannot be recycled in most cases due to the different plastic materials involved either. It’s also important to separate the materials in the decorations before disposing of them, such as segregating electrical waste or removing ribbons from natural wreaths if wanting to compost them.

 

All that said, take these steps into account and confer with your waste management provider for advice in preparing in advance for the busy month of December to come.

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