City of York Council has sent all households a new waste and recycling calendar for 2018/19.

The new calendar includes information on when collections are taking place between December 2018 and November 2019 as well as collections over the Christmas and New Year period.

Cllr Andrew Waller, Executive Member for Environmental Services, said: “We’ve listened to residents and this year we’re maintaining collections over the Christmas period. Our front-line crews will continue to work over the Christmas and New Year week with the only exceptions being the bank holidays. This is just one example of how we are introducing a number of improvements to help residents recycle more, reduce waste and minimise fly-tipping.”

The new calendars provide tips and advice on what items can and can’t be recycled, including paper/cardboard, glass, plastic bottles, cans/tins and garden waste if applicable. As well as the paper copies, residents can also look up their collection dates and download a calendar, from mid-December, at: www.york.gov.uk/refuselookup .

The council is making Christmas waste and recycling collections simpler for residents this year.

Crews will continue to collect waste over Christmas and New Year, with the only exceptions being:

• Collections due on Christmas Day will be on Saturday 22 December
• Boxing Day will be collected on Saturday 29 December
• New Year’s Day will be collected on Saturday 5 January

All other days will be as normal.

Extra festive recycling will be collected too including greeting cards, paper, wrapping paper (non foil), cardboard, plastic bottles, tins or glass. All residents need to do is correctly sort them and place them in separate untied clear bags or open boxes of a similar size to a recycling box and put out with their recycling, or simply take them to a recycling site. Full details of how to present extra items can be found here:  www.york.gov.uk/ExcessAndAdditionalRecycling

Real Christmas trees and wreaths can also be taken to recycling sites at Hazel Court HWRC or Towthorpe HWRC.  Please note that both sites are closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

 It’s important that bins or boxes are presented by 7am on the day of collections, but no earlier than 7pm the evening before.

Residents can also look up their collection dates at: www.york.gov.uk/refuselookup

Residents who live in the city centre and have their recycling collected by St Nick’s will receive details about those service changes soon.

As we head into the winter season, garden waste collections will be coming to an end too. The last garden waste collections of the season will be in November and they will start up again next year in April.

Households which have not received their calendar by the end of November can look up their collections at www.york.gov.uk/refuselookup or if they don’t have online access, contact the council on 01904 551551 or ycc@york.gov.uk for a replacement copy.