With the big day just weeks away, East Devon District Council has some clever tips to help people in Exmouth reduce, refill, reuse and recycle more over the festive period.

A special Christmas Tree mulching event will be taking place in Exmouth at the Imperial Road car park on Monday, January 6, between 8.30am and 2pm.

We all know Christmas can be a busy time - so many things to remember, shopping to organise, food to prepare. There is so much going on that often recycling can fall to the bottom of the list.

But did you know that, on average, we produce 30% more waste over the Christmas period? With all the fun, food, and gifts comes lots of packaging and extra waste.

EDDC has got some top tips for Exmouth residents to help them recycle more, cut back on the waste and save some pennies too.

East Devon householders are among the best in the country at recycling as the district now recycles around 60% of the waste that's produced.

The recyclable materials the council collects are valuable resources that are used as raw materials in manufacturing, to generate renewable power or create natural fertiliser for agriculture.

Whilst we want to recycle as much as possible, we also need to preserve the quality of the materials to make them easy to use in these ways. So quality as well as quantity counts in recycling!

Our top tips for quality recycling over the festive period include:

-Plain wrapping paper or plain Christmas cards – place these in your green recycling box.

-Wrapping paper or Christmas cards with glitter, foil or plastic – sorry we can't accept these for recycling so they need to go in your wheeled bin and they will be used to generate electricity.

-Putting these out for recycling could contaminate a whole lorry load of paper or cardboard!

-Textiles – put these into a bag and then into your recycling box to keep them dry. The textiles and shoes we collect are re-used so we are after the best quality items we can get and need to keep them clean and dry.

-Food – the best thing to do with food during the festivities is to eat and enjoy. But even the best shopper and most skilled cook will get some food waste. You can use any single use bag to line your food caddy to make food recycling easy and to keep your blue caddy nice and clean.

-Plastic film – Unfortunately we are unable to recycle plastic film products such as film wrappers, plastic bags, crisp packets, and polythene and pill casing. Put these items in your wheeled bin so that we can generate energy from them.

-Polystyrene – There is always lots of polystyrene around at Christmas in packaging. This is really difficult to recycle so please put this into your wheeled bin and we will generate energy from it.

-Extra recycling – If you have extra recycling at this time of year and you have filled your recycling containers you can put the extra materials in a box or bag next to your regular containers.

EDDC is also holding Christmas tree recycling events in the New Year where you can bring along your real tree to have it mulched.

The events will be held at:

-Axminster West Street car park, Mon 6 Jan, 12.30pm to 2.30pm

-Broadclyst Victory Hall car park, Tue 7 Jan, 12.30pm to 2.30pm

-Budleigh Salterton Lime Kiln car park, Tue 7 Jan, 8.30am to 11.30am

-Cranbrook Court Royal Road nr pub, Wed 8 January 12.30pm -2.30pm

-Exmouth Imperial Road car park, Mon 6 Jan, 8.30am to 2pm

-Honiton Lace Walk car park, Tue 7 Jan, 8.30am to 11.30am

-Ottery St Mary Land of Canaan car park, Tue 7 Jan, 12.30pm to 2.30pm

-Seaton Harbour Road car park, Mon 6 Jan, 8.30am to 11.30am

-Sidmouth Manor Road car park, Wed 8 Jan, 8.30am to 12pm

If you have any further questions about recycling and when your collections are over the holiday period, why not check the council website for full information by clicking the red button below.

Or you could download the East Devon app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. The app enables you to access a variety of council services on your smartphone.

You can also now use your Alexa to 'Ask East Devon District Council . . . ' and then give Alexa your question.