Christmas and New Year bin dates 

Your adjusted collection dates are listed below, but don't forget you can always download your collection calendar, or sign up for email bin day reminders!

We've also got a comprehensive list of what can and can't be recycled.

Wrapping paper

Do not put wrapping paper in your green bin.

Like in previous years, we are unable to take ‘normal’ – white-backed, thin and shiny – wrapping paper in the green bin. Cheap wrapping paper simply doesn’t recycle. The quality is so poor that it doesn’t make pulp. The paper mills don’t want it and we can’t send it to them.

There are recyclable varieties of white wrapping paper available, but please be aware that these will likewise not end up being recycled. They are impossible to tell apart from the non-recyclable kinds as they move along the conveyors in our recycling plant.

Please note that the recycling centres similarly do not accept wrapping paper of any kind for recycling.

We can recycle brown paper.

Brown paper is recyclable, even if it’s got a printed design on it or has been decorated with water-based paint or inks (but no glitter).

Some retailers now sell brown wrapping paper with printed designs on them. If it’s brown on both sides of the paper then it can go in your green bin – as long as it doesn’t have any foil or glitter on it.

Consider using reusable gift boxes or cloth wrappings, but newspaper or old comics could also make fun wrappings and these, along with brown paper, are definitely recyclable.

Cards

Please do not put these in your green bin.

This may sound like strange advice, but the fact is that most greetings cards are not of sufficient quality to recycle with higher-quality paper and card.

Any Christmas cards containing glitter or shiny foil should definitely not be put out for recycling.

Recycling centres will accept NON-GLITTERY Christmas cards for recycling, but why not consider making them into tags for next year’s gifts instead?

Christmas tree disposal

Exeter City Council garden waste customers can place their tree out for collection with or without their brown bin on their first garden collection of the year. Collections start again in the last week of January. Check our bin collections page to see when your first garden waste collection is.

Or, you can take it to one of Devon County Council’s recycling centres in Exeter, either in Marsh Barton or on Pinbrook Road.

Alternatively, you can sign up to Hospiscare’s scheme in exchange for a donation.

Please do not put your tree out with your black bin as it will not be collected or leave your tree in a car park or other public space. We do not have the resources to collect and dispose of trees other than those put out with brown bins. Leaving a tree in a public space is an act of fly tipping and puts a strain on our services.

Glass

There are glass bank sites all across the city. No doubt there will be extra glass to deposit over the Christmas and New Year period and our collection team will be working hard to empty the banks; however, like so many organisations at the moment, we are operating with limited staff resources. If your usual banks are full, please do not leave any glass beside the banks as this causes a lot of extra work at a time when our services are stretched.

Find your nearest glass bank.

Extreme weather

If it snows or there are other extreme weather events, please see our advice about what to do with your waste and to find out when collections will take place.