The Christmas season can bring lots of happiness – and waste. Local households create and throw out close to 400 tonnes of extra waste at Christmas.
City of Sydney service liaison coordinator Katherine O’Sullivan has provided her tips on what can and can’t be recycled, and how to help us keep things out of landfill.
If you're planning your festive season, view our guide on how to have a sustainable Christmas.
Gift wrapping
Carefully unwrap your gifts. You can save the paper and reuse it for future Christmas or birthday gifts.
Christmas wrapping paper made from 100% paper can go in your yellow lid bin, even if it has sticky tape attached.
Metallic wrapping paper or paper with glitter or foil detail can’t be recycled. If you receive Christmas gifts wrapped in these, pop them in your red lid bin.
Natural Christmas trees
Break small trees up into pieces and put them in your green lid bin along with your garden clippings.
If you don’t have a green lid bin and regularly have garden waste, you can order a free bin and have it collected each fortnight.
"We mulch trees placed in the green lid bins," Katherine said.
Trees that are too big to fit in the green lid bin can be placed beside the bin for collection.
Alternatively, you can book a free pick-up for your real tree. It will be separated from the bulky waste and mulched with other garden clippings. If you need to arrange a collection for your natural Christmas tree between 25 December and 1 January, call us on 02 9265 9333.
However you dispose of your tree, remove all decorations and don’t wrap it in plastic.
Plastic Christmas trees
They may be reusable, but plastic Christmas trees are often made of materials that can’t be recycled.
Old or broken trees are likely to end up in landfill and won’t decompose.
If your unwanted plastic Christmas tree is in good condition, you might like to give it a new home via Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, Trading Post, eBay or Freecycle.
We'll accept real and plastic Christmas trees in our free weekly pick-up service but hold on to it until you have other bulky items to put out.
Fairy lights, LEDs and other electronics
Electronics, including Christmas lights, contain toxic materials and don’t belong in the bin. If you’ve scored some new gadgets and need to get rid of your old ones, you have a few options.
If the old gadgets are working, donate or sell them. If not, City of Sydney residents can:
- drop them off at recycling stations at libraries, customer service and community centres – small electronics less than 11cm wide like mobile phones will fit
- take them to the Ultimo recycling pop-up, open Tuesdays 2pm to 7pm
- book a free pick-up for larger items
- bring them to our quarterly Recycle It Saturday drop-off event
- book a doorstep recycling collection.
We recycle around 95% of the raw materials we recover from your old Christmas lights and electronics.
Batteries
Sales of batteries spike during the festive season. But once you’re done with them, batteries can be a huge environmental hazard.
Always try to use rechargeable batteries, but even these need to be disposed of carefully.
Batteries must never go in any of your household bins. They can be dangerous when compacted in collection trucks and can even cause truck fires.
Best to drop off your batteries for recycling at our customer service centres and libraries or book a doorstep recycling collection.
Food
If you find yourself with a fridge full of leftovers on Boxing Day, you can preserve them for longer using these simple tips. You may be surprised how many foods you can freeze. And if you’re fed up with ham and turkey sandwiches, try these recipes to give your leftovers a new flavour. There’s even creative ways you can use leftover prawn heads.
To stop your bins from stinking, keep any food scraps like prawn shells and off food in the freezer. Pop them in your red or maroon lid bin the night before collection day. This will prevent flies and maggots too.
Styrofoam or polystyrene
It may have a plastic identification code on it, which looks like a recycling symbol, but polystyrene or styrofoam can’t be recycled in your yellow lid bin.
If you’ve received lots of polystyrene with your presents, you can book a doorstep collection or drop it off free at the Ultimo recycling pop-up and at our next Recycle It Saturday event.
Aluminium disposable food and baking trays
Aluminium foil trays can be recycled in your yellow lid bin – just remove any food and oil and scrunch them into a ball shape, like regular foil.
Unwanted gifts
Donate, sell, or re-gift. Sometimes you just don’t want, or need, what’s been given to you. Try local charities like Relove, Bower or Pyrmont Cares. View our guides on sustainable ways to get rid of your old stuff and how to sell your stuff online fast.
If you’re re-gifting, just remember who gave you the present. You don’t want to be caught returning it to them – now that could be awkward.
Get answers to all your tricky questions about reducing, reusing and recycling: ask a waste expert.
Published 20 November 2023, updated 17 December 2024
