When are Torridge Christmas waste and recycling collections?

There will be no kerbside recycling collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day across Torridge but crews will be working normally on other days across the holiday period.

Torridge District Council has said a big ‘thank you’ to residents who have continued to boost the recycling rates across the district, which now also includes small electrical goods and batteries.

The council has urged residents to keep recycling, especially all the cardboard, drinks containers and other waste items Christmas celebrations usually generate.

The council are asking people to check their collection dates on their online calendar  or in the list below, as some of the collections will be a day or two later than usual as a result of the public holidays.

To accommodate the extra work over this period, as usual, there will be no garden waste collections between Monday, December 25 and Sunday, January 7, 2024. Collections start again on Monday, January 8.

Councillor Chris Leather, TDC lead member for waste and recycling said: “2023 has been a great year for recycling, and I would like to express my gratitude to the residents of Torridge who have supported our crews and continued to recycle throughout the year.

“Please remember to 'wash and squash' your plastic bottles and cans, as this helps our crews to collect double the amount of recycled materials on each round. In closing, I would like to wish all of our residents a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”

What festive items can you recycle?

Real Christmas trees – ideally chopped up and placed in the green wheelie bin or whole trees can be placed next to the green bin.

Plastic bottles, containers and tins (green box).

Foil trays (green box).

Glass bottles and jars (black box).

Christmas cards without glitter (brown bag).

Christmas card envelopes (brown bag).

Food waste, including turkey bones (green food caddies).

Cardboard (broken up or flattened) which must be placed in the brown bag. Each household can have two brown bags and to order an extra one people should visit the council website.

What can’t you recycle?

Large, oversized cardboard boxes may be rejected unless broken into pieces and placed in the brown bags, or alternatively these can be taken to one of the local Devon County Council recycling centres.

Items covered in glitter.

Torridge can only accept brown wrapping paper due to the low-grade nature of standard wrapping paper, for which there is currently no commercial end use.

Items that can’t be recycled will be collected in the black bag waste collections, but no waste will be sent to landfill as these collections are sent to an energy from waste reclamation plant where it is processed to generate electricity.

More recycling information can be found on social media or on the council’s website at torridge.gov.uk/recycling