Date: 22/12/2009
High Peak residents have been urged to stay true to form this Christmas by recycling as much of their waste as possible.
The plea was made this week by the Borough Council, which said that households had recycled a mountain of festive throwaways in recent years.
Said John Haken, Executive Councillor for the Environment: "At Christmas, we all produce more waste than usual but we can still do our bit for the environment by recycling as much as possible".
All glass, cans and paper can be recycled through the green box scheme while cardboard boxes should be placed in the green-lidded bin, which will also happily accept Christmas cards and non-foil wrapping paper.
Christmas trees can be taken to one of many collection points across the borough during January. For their nearest collection point, residents should see their local newspaper or visit the council's website.
The amount of wrapping paper thrown away in the UK at Christmas could stretch around the equator nine times or to the Moon if each sheet were laid end to end.
Every year, the UK throws out an estimated 4,500 tonnes of tin foil over the festive period. This is enough to cover around 1,500 square miles - roughly the size of Suffolk!
From champagne and sherry bottles to mincemeat and cranberry sauce jars, around 13,500 tonnes of glass is thrown out in the UK each Christmas. Recycling all that glass would save 4,200 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to taking 1,300 cars off the road for one year or to not taking 630 flights around the world.