Christmas and New Year recycling and waste collections 2025

There will be no changes to collection days in the week leading up to Christmas. 

However, there will be changes to collections between Christmas Day and Sunday 4th January. 

Collection dates: 

Reminder – all waste and recycling needs to be placed out before 6am on collection day. 

Our crews will be extremely busy over the Christmas and New Year period so if your waste or recycling is missed, please leave it out until they have been emptied. 

Extra black bag rubbish  
Thanks to the fantastic efforts of our residents and the work of our recycling education and enforcement team, recycling has really improved – food waste recycling went up 16% this October. 

To help out over the festive season, we’ll allow one extra black bag of non-recyclable waste to be put out with your first purple-lidded bin on the collection after Christmas. 

We know Christmas can create a bit more waste than usual but remember – you can recycle more than ever at the kerbside. Please only use the extra bag if you really need to. 

After that first collection, please continue recycling as much as possible and follow the council’s recycling policy by not putting out any side waste. 

Christmas cards 
Plain Christmas cards can be recycled in the blue bag.  

Cards that have anything extra on them such as glitter and ribbons cannot be recycled, why not use these again next year for present labels/tags.  

Wrapping paper 
Only plain brown or grey wrapping paper can be recycled in the blue bag.  

Any shiny wrapping paper, or wrapping paper containing plastic, sticky tape or glitter can’t be recycled as it is made of too many different materials. Please put it in the purple lidded bin or reuse it.  

Real Christmas trees 
If you have a real Christmas tree, once it’s come to the end of its life it can be taken to the Household Recycling Centre to be shredded and used as compost. Please be sure to remove any decorations first. 

Food waste 
Any unavoidable food waste such as tea bags and meat bones can be put in the brown food waste caddy. 

Don’t forget you can use any plastic bag to line your food waste caddy. 

Before recycling any food waste, take a look at lovefoodhatewaste.com to find tasty leftover recipes. 

Coffee Pods 
Coffee Pods can now be recycled at the Household Recycling Centre.  

Please bag plastic and aluminium pods separately, and place them loose in the container on site. 

Foil 
Foil can be recycled but it has to be clean. So, the foil tray your mince pie comes in can be recycled, but if the foil you cooked your turkey in is very greasy this can’t be recycled. 

Please reuse any foil where possible, and consider using other reusable food materials for storing and protecting your Christmas food. 

Household Recycling Centre 
The site is open every day between 10am – 3.45pm except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day when it is closed.  Last vehicle entry to the site is 3:45pm. 

Before coming to the site, please make sure you have sorted your waste and recycling, and check if your vehicle needs a permit or not. Find out about vehicle permits. 

Also, don’t forget you now need a form of ID to enter the recycling centre. Find out what ID you can take. 

The Steelhouse 
You can donate good-quality items to The Steelhouse reuse shop, near the Household Recycling centre in New Inn. 

Christmas opening hours: 

The Repair Café 
The Repair Cafe in Pontypool Indoor Market is closed from Thursday 18 December and will reopen on Wednesday 7 January 2026. 

Find out more about recycling