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For many of us, it's back to work on Monday. All that's left of the festivities is a hangover and bulging bin-liners piled at the back door. According to environmental charity Wasteonline, we generate about 3m tonnes of rubbish in less than two weeks of partying and some of that could be heading to a landfill near you. But whether it's food, the tree or those unwanted presents, there is a better way than dumping it all in the bin.
Food, foil and plastics
As a nation, we waste £16m worth of turkey, £40m of cheese and £60m of sausages every year. That's 1.2m bangers binned every day. Unsurprisingly, wasteful activity peaks over Christmas.
While no one wants to eat brussels sprouts 10 days after they were cooked, Julia Falcon, of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, recommends we rid ourselves of some of our extras by "free lunching"; returning to our offices "with a lunchbox full of festive goodies to cheer ourselves up". She also reminds us that leftovers can be healthy. "They're not just comfort foods. Take, for example, turkey noodle soup, cold meat salads, smoked salmon scrambled eggs," she says and advises we resist the temptation to bin "unhealthy" food (such as rich cheeses and chocs) as part of our new year detox: "If we store them well we can continue to pick at them in small amounts, keeping us going through the dark January weeks."
Seek inspiration for "leftover" recipes such as Christmas pudding strudel and pear and Stilton toasts at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
The acres of tin foil used for turkeys can also be recycled too (after washing), as can other aluminium items such as cans, milk bottle tops and wine bottles. Crisp packets can't though – they are made out of a plastic film. Do the "scrunch test", says Laura Underwood of website RecycleNow: "If it springs back, you shouldn't recycle it."
As for that mini-mountain of empty bottles, Underwood says: "Everyone knows that alcohol and drink bottles are recyclable, but everything from mincemeat jars to baby food bottles can be recycled." Bottles and jars should be cleaned and tops or corks removed.
Plastics occupy a tricky area for recycling. More and more local authorities accept them via recycling banks or kerbside collection schemes. Check the triangular recycling symbol on the bottom of the bottle, which identifies the type of plastic. PET and HDPE bottles are recycled by most local authorities To check what is (and isn't) recyclable, see www.recyclenow.com.
Trees and cards
Most local authorities recycle Christmas trees, chop them up and use the chippings to cover pathways or as compost. The more eco-minded folk of Brighton will have their trees picked up this week by Britain's first Christmas Tree recycling service, run by Gill's Home and Garden. So appalled were Adam and Gill Campbell to see trees being grown, axed and binned for our short-lived festive delight that they rent trees for around £30. This week they will set about replanting them in the Sussex countryside.
And, according to the Woodland Trust, if we all recycle just one Christmas card this year via their scheme they'll be able to plant 15,000 trees. Make sure your cards head their way to them via special bins at WHSmith, Tesco, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer throughout January. Last year the public contributed 73.6m cards, enabling the charity to plant 141,000 trees stopping 16,000 tonnes of CO2 – "the equivalent of taking more than 5,000 cars off the road for a year". Check out www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/cards.
Unwanted presents
"We've all received really dud presents," says Luke Taylor, head of internet reselling website PlayTrade. He reckons that "between a third and a quarter" of all gifts are "wrong or duplicate". To this end, PlayTrade has launched www.recycleagift.com. Since Christmas, Taylor says the site has received an "overwhelming" response. "We never expected it to be so popular, it was set up more as a gimmick – to show that you can easily and for free, recycle your unwanted gifts and get what you wanted instead," he says. "It's great to think that the presents are actually finding a home rather than just gathering dust."
Since Christmas Day the most heavily traded item on the site is been the best selling DVD Mamma Mia!
Meanwhile, eBay claims to have listed about 2m unwanted Christmas gifts on its site on 27 December last year.
If that strikes you as being at odds with the true Christmas spirit, try Jumble*AID, an online service which launched this Christmas backed by Barnado's, World Vision and the Prince's Trust. You post details about your surplus-to-requirements present, pick a charity from its database, and prospective buyers pledge a donation. You choose depending on (for example) value of donation and where they live. The money goes, less transaction costs, to the selected charity.
If you received a laptop for Christmas, Computer Aid International is urging you to donate your old computer equipment for re-use in countries such as Zambia, Chile and Madagascar. It will even use the asset number on your computer to track where it has ended up and the project it is benefiting.
Wrapping paper
Wasteonline reckons that the British use about 83 square km of wrapping paper over the festive period – "enough to cover an area larger than Guernsey". According to the appropriately named Wrap (Waste and Resources Action Programme), some local authorities will accept wrapping paper with your kerbside collections or at your paper bank. However, RecycleNow's Underwood points out: "If it's shiny and laminated, it probably isn't recyclable." Wrap wants us to use a new way of wrapping called furoshiki, which is a cloth origami, so "when the present is unwrapped there's nothing to be thrown away". It reckons that fabric can be part of your gift (scarf, pashmina, tablecloth etc).
Kids' toys typically arrive entombed in plastic packing. "The plastic outer isn't recyclable, but if you separate it from the cardboard, the cardboard can go straight into your recycling box," says Underwood. The plastic ties, are perfect for gardening ties, she adds.
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