‘Manic’ festive period for recycling firm

The recycling centre processes all of the island’s recycling, and general manager Andy Norman said that business tended to be ‘manic’ on the lead up to and after Christmas.

‘We get at least 50% extra. Cardboard goes up before Christmas, and then after Christmas we see a lot of paper,’ he said.

‘We have seen a lot of Amazon boxes in the lead up to Christmas and everything from the supermarkets from the last month.’

The team of 18 at Mayside have had the centre open at 1.30am for kerbside lorries to drop all the bags off before they start processing all of the rubbish from 6am each day.

‘It’s all about trying to stay on top of everything. Everything we get in we do as it comes so we don’t end up with a backlog,’ said Mr Norman. ‘We need everybody in through December.’

Last December clear bag materials collected from kerbside or dropped off at the centre amounted to 140 tonnes, compared to the weekly average of 90 tonnes. There was 74 tonnes of blue bag materials compared to the usual 50 tonnes, 130 tonnes of glass, which is 30% higher than the rest of the year, and food waste increased by 25% in the week leading up to Christmas.

‘Christmas is the time of year for giving and with this we do see higher waste volumes for a few weeks after Christmas. The most important advise we can provide the public is to try and prevent generating waste where possible, this is better for your budget and for the environment,’ said Douglas Button, waste minimisation and sustainability officer at Guernsey Waste.

To check whether your waste collections are affected over the festive period, please visit www.gov.gg/mybinnight or contact your parish office.