Easter Recycling in Southend - it's in the box
Over the years chocolate egg packaging has been a hot topic due to the high proportion that couldn’t be recycled. This is slowly changing with major retailers promising to reduce their packaging which is eggcellent. We are asking everyone to pick their Easter treats with the recycling bin in mind and recycle as much as possible over the bank holiday, starting with cardboard Easter egg boxes.
Around 80 million Easter eggs are eaten in the UK each year which generates around 4,500 tons of Easter egg packaging. A study by Which? revealed that packaging alone accounts for up to a quarter of the total weight of the most popular Easter eggs on sale on the High Street so i’s important to pick sustainably and recycle wherever possible.
Many Easter eggs come wrapped in pretty foil, which many people aren’t sure whether they can recycle. Happily, you can! Simply scrunch the foil into a loose ball along with any other bits of used foil (including from smaller eggs) and pop it into your pink recycling sacks. If it springs back open when you try to scrunch it, this means it’s laminated and should go in your black sacks.
If you can, choose Easter eggs that come in less packaging, or at least in recyclable packaging – there’s a lot more of it around these days! Inevitably, you’re still likely to end up with a large quantity of cardboard boxes and possibly some plastic trays.
- plastic trays can be recycled in your pink recycling sacks
- cardboard boxes can be recycled in your blue box for paper and card, remember to flatten them to save space.
Sweet and chocolate bars wrappers are not recyclable and should be placed in your black sacks with the rest of your non-recyclable waste.
While they’re not as common as Christmas cards, many people do still send Easter cards. Once you’re done displaying them, these can be recycled at home, along with their envelopes, in your blue box for paper and card, providing they don’t have glitter or foil on them, in which case they should go in your black sacks.
Easter is a time when, a bit like Christmas, there’s a lot of food around the house that can easily go to waste if we’ve overestimated how much we’re going to need. Of course, there are lots of tasty ways to use up surplus Easter food – head over to our friends at Love Food Hate Waste for some delicious Easter leftovers inspiration. But what about the food waste you can’t eat, such as egg shells (not the chocolate kind!) or the base of a lettuce? These can go in your blue food waste bin.
Hot cross buns usually come in plastic wrapping with a cardboard inner to hold the buns. You can recycle the plastic wrapping in your pink recycling sacks, but remember to get rid of any bits of hot cross bun stuck to it! As for the cardboard, this can go in your blue box for paper and card, but remember to remove as much of the food residue as you can (hot cross buns are notoriously sticky!), as this can cause contamination.
Easter Eggs Competition Terms and Conditions
Easter Eggs Competition terms and conditions
- Only one entry per person is allowed. Any entrant who enters more than once will be disqualified.
- All winners will be chosen at random from entries received by the closing date.
- The prize(s) are as set out in the competition information.
- Unless specifically stated otherwise, prizes are not transferable, cannot be re-sold and no cash alternative to prizes will be offered.
- No correspondence will be entered into on any matters arising from the competition.
- To qualify to enter the competition you must be a resident of Southend-on-Sea unless the competition states otherwise. All competition correspondence will be sent to the address given.
- All entries must include the competitor's name, address and daytime contact details.
- Employees of the communications and marketing team at Southend City Council and their immediate families are not eligible to enter the competition.
- Entries will be accepted by Facebook comments only.
- Failure to claim the prize within the given timeframe will make any claim invalid and Southend City Council may re-allocate the prize.
- The decision of the service director for communications and marketing is final in all matters relating to a competition.