Christmas 2011: Top Christmas recycling tips

Minimise rubbish and make the season's excesses go further with these top Christmas recycling tips - from wrapping paper to your Christmas dinner leftovers.

1. Christmas tree recycling

Christmas trees are usually taken down in early January - here's what you can do with yours once the festive season comes to an end.

Real Christmas trees

A real Christmas tree can be recycled for compost or wood chipping once you've finished with it.

Some shops offer in-store Christmas tree recycling services in January, and many councils set up temporary Christmas tree recycling sites. See our interactive recycling tool, selecting 'Christmas trees' from the drop-down menu, for more information.

Recycle or re-plant your Christmas tree after the festivities are over

Artificial Christmas trees

The beauty of artificial trees is that they can be re-used over and over again. However, when you do want to replace it, it's not recyclable because these trees are often made of several different materials. If yours is still in good shape, you could give it away to a local school, community centre or church. Failing that, a community re-use website, such as Freecycle.org or Don'tdumpthat.com, can put you in touch with someone to give your tree to.

Container-grown or 'living' trees

You can plant these in your garden as you would any potted plant or flower, to re-use the following year.

2. Recycling Christmas cards

Contact your council to see what local recycling facilities are in your area; some, but not all, will accept old Christmas cards as part of general cardboard/paper recycling collection services. Also keep an eye out for collection boxes in shops; many stores that sell Christmas cards also offer drop-off points in January. 

Alternatively, keep hold of your cards and get crafty with the kids. The cards you received this year could help to decorate next year's home-made ones.

3. Wrapping paper recycling

Swathes of wrapping paper are used over Christmas to prettily package up gifts - but once all the presents are open, what can you do with the leftover wrapping paper? Some wrapping papers can be recycled, but it depends what materials have been used to make the paper.

Luxury wrapping paper often contains extra materials such as foil or glitter, making it more problematic - or simply impossible - to recycle. If in doubt, contact your council to see if it'll accept wrapping paper as part of its household paper recycling collection (or at a local recycling site), and stick to simple paper-based wrapping, which will be easier to recycle. 

You should remove all sticky tape from the wrapping paper before recycling it. 

Alternatively, choose re-usable gift boxes instead - or take a more patient approach to present opening and keep your rip-free paper for next time.

4. Make Christmas dinner leftovers go further

Using Christmas leftovers can be more inventive than a plate of turkey sandwiches. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign has leftover recipes and meal suggestions to help you make meals for Boxing Day and beyond.

Be creative with your Christmas dinner leftovers rather than wasting them

Of course it's even better - because it wastes less food and money - to plan out your food shopping according to how much you actually need. That task is made a little easier using its Christmas meal portion planner.

Composting natural food waste and peelings is also an option, if you install a compost bin or wormery in your garden. Find out more about what you can and can't compost in our food waste recycling guide.

5. Recycle unwanted or old electricals

UK households throw away around a million tonnes of electrical goods every year - enough to fill six new Wembley Stadiums. 

It's tempting to throw out old items when you receive replacement goods as gifts at Christmas, but recycling waste electronic goods keeps them out of landfill. Electronic goods can be treated and have any hazardous substances removed before being recycled. 

Our product recycling tool shows you different ways to re-use and recycle a range of household items.

Recycling can be as good for the pocket as it is for the environment - make money recycling products from mobiles and MP3 players to old books and CDs using a service listed in our green money-making guide.

More on this...

• Which? advice: five ways to make money recycling 
• More ways to deal with excess packaging
• Top tips on how to buy the best Christmas tree