If you’re planning to get a head start on your present wrapping, please note that Cardiff Council has made changes to how you can dispose of wrapping paper this year.
Wrapping paper often has a very high ink content, contains non-paper additives like glitter, plastics, gold and silver coloured shapes which cannot be recycled. Others are very thin and contain few good quality fibres for recycling. This product is often rejected during the recycling process.
In previous years, the Council has been able to separate it from other material at Cardiff’s recycling facility, but this is no longer possible due to social distancing requirements.
As part of the Council’s commitment to improve the quality of material available to be recycled, they have announced that they will no longer be accepting wrapping paper – unless it is plain brown wrapping paper – in green recycling bags.
However, if you do find that you have large amounts of wrapping paper over the Christmas period, the Council will be allowing for extra black bags (of wrapping paper) to be placed alongside your usual general waste bin.
If you can fit your used wrapping paper in your black bin or red stripe bag, that’s great, you don’t need to do anything else. Just leave it out for collection.
However, if you have any excess wrapping paper after filling up your bin or red striped bag, then for weeks commencing 28th December and 4th January only, please put this excess wrapping into a black bin bag and place next to your black bin or red-striped bags and our crews will pick it up.
Please do not put anything other than wrapping paper and other wrapping products e.g, bows, string etc into these bags though, as the crews may not pick them up if they contain other household or general waste.
- You can still recycle plain brown wrapping paper in your green recycling bags, but please remove any sellotape, bows and tags etc to dispose of with your general waste.
- The bags with wrapping waste which won’t fit into your black bins or red-striped bags will only be picked up on your general waste collection week – same day as your black bin or red-striped bag collection.
- Green recycling bags containing any wrapping paper which isn’t plain brown wrapping will not be collected. As stated above you can put plain brown wrapping paper into green recycling bags with other recyclables.
If you’re booking a visit to our recycling centres over the Christmas period, please take your used wrapping paper with you. Book your visit here: https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ENG/resident/Rubbish-and-recycling/recycling-centres/Pages/default.aspx
