THE FESTIVE period is one of the busiest for Wiltshire’s waste and recycling staff.

Whether it is cards, wrapping paper, trees or leftovers from the Christmas meal, there is a lot more waste to deal with.

An estimated 6,300 extra tonnes of household waste is generated over the Christmas period - equivalent to the weight of 35 jumbo jets.

Andy Conn, waste service manager at Wiltshire County Council, said: “People in Wiltshire are keen recyclers all year round.

“We all produce a little more during the festive period but that doesn’t mean everything has to end up in a landfill.

“With a little care and by using all the many services provided by your local authority for recycling, we can make sure Christmas doesn’t end up costing the earth.”

Wiltshire County Council’s ten top tips to help residents have a green Christmas are 1. If you get new clothes for Christmas then make room for them by taking your unwanted clothes to a charity shop, recycling site or put them in your kerbside black box.

2. A home composting bin will take most uncooked food waste while a food waste digester will take all food waste, including meat, bones, fish and dairy. To get subsidised prices go to www.recycleforwiltshire.com.

3. A whole range of jars - from cranberry sauce to mincemeat and baby food - can all be recycled: just give them a rinse in your leftover dish washing water and recycle them with your other glass. Don’t worry about removing labels; they will come off in the recycling process.

4. The Woodland Trust has announced that people will be able to recycle their Christmas cards at all WH Smith high street stores and all major Tesco stores across the UK from January 2 to 31. Christmas cards can also be recycled at household recycling centres (HRC) along with other cardboard.

5. Wrapping paper should not be put out with other paper for recycling as it is not of good enough quality – but you can always save it for use next year.

6. A good way to reduce wrapping waste is to use ‘furoshiki’, a Japanese-style of wrapping presents with spare pieces of fabric which can then be reused. Watch the video on www.recycleforwiltshire.com in the section on Christmas recycling.

7. You can get your old Christmas tree shredded at your nearest HRC and it will be taken away and turned into compost.

8. Cardboard packaging from presents can be taken to your nearest HRC. West Wiltshire and North Wiltshire residents have access to cardboard recycling bins at some local bring sites but these fill up quickly over Christmas so it is often better to use your nearest HRC. Salisbury residents can use their fortnightly kerbside plastic bottle and cardboard collection.

9. Many of us will get electrical items as presents but it doesn’t mean you old toaster, television or computer has to go in the bin. Take them to your nearest household recycling centre as many of them can be stripped of their essential materials for recycling.

10. With a mass of new gifts being given and received this Christmas, there are bound to be clear outs of old furniture or tired models of equipment. Why not contact the Community Recycling Network (www.crn.org.uk) as they distribute unwanted furniture and household goods to those in need. Alternatively use your local online Freecycle network (www.freecycle.org/groups/unitedkingdom/).

As well as the 300 local mini-recycling centres people can use their kerbside black box to recycle paper, tins cans, foil, glass bottles, textiles and empty aerosol cans.

For information on when your black box is collected see www.recyleforwiltshire.com.

You can also use one of the county’s ten household recycling centres which accept more than two dozen different items for recycling.

The HRCs are open 9am to 4pm every day of the week with Warminster and Salisbury open additionally until 6pm every day. They are only closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.