A COUNCIL is calling on householders to recycle over Christmas to cut down on landfill. North Herts District Council suggests residents avoid excessive packaging when buying goods, take their cardboard to special collection points across the district bet

A COUNCIL is calling on householders to recycle over Christmas to cut down on landfill.

North Herts District Council suggests residents avoid excessive packaging when buying goods, take their cardboard to special collection points across the district between January 5 to 8, and their Christmas cards to W H Smith or M&S for recycling.

Brown bins are being suspended for a fortnight to enable rubbish crews to catch up with grey bin collections not picked up on holidays over the festive period. This will mean food waste will not be collected for four weeks.

Lynda Needham, portfolio holder for waste and environment, said: "Over Christmas last year 35 additional lorry loads of waste were created, all going to landfill. This was mainly food waste, cardboard and packaging, all of which can now be recycled in North Herts.

"I hope we can all enjoy ourselves over Christmas and still reduce our waste even more. This will help the environment and reduce the growing cost of waste."

For full details on rubbish collection over Christmas go to www.north-herts.gov.uk