Great Yarmouth Borough Council are dreaming of a green Christmas

Nevertheless, please be aware that not everything can be put into your green recycling bins. The type of items you can recycle are things such as glass jars and bottles, plastic food pots, tubs and food trays, aluminium foil and foil trays, juice and soup cartons. The only requirement is that these items are clean, dry and unbagged.

You can also recycle Christmas cards, envelopes and wrapping paper. Statistics show that in the UK alone 277,000 miles of wrapping paper is set to go to landfill this Christmas. To help reduce this number, and to help you determine which wrapping paper is recycling friendly or not, simply carry out the "Scrunch Test", which you can be seen here. After removing any sticky tape or labels, scrunch the wrapping paper into a ball. If it holds its shape, then it's ok to recycle.

Items that are unable to be put into your green recycling bins are nappies, clothing, food waste, electricals, paper towels and tissues.

Real Christmas trees can also be recycled at The Household Recycling Centre at Caister-On-Sea. The centre is open 9am to 4pm seven days a week, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. If you're a member of the garden waste kerbside collected scheme, you can chop up your real Christmas tree and dispose of it in your brown bin. The guidelines are that branches must be under 10cm in diameter and 60cm in length. Please refrain from putting trees in your black or green bins.

As well as recycling, you can also go green this festive period by donating all unwanted presents and clothing to your local charity shops. Anyone who receives new electrical equipment this Christmas shouldn't throw away their old equipment but instead take them to a charity shop where they can be PAT tested for resale. However, any electrical goods that are no longer in working order should be taken to the Household Recycling Centre.

Refuse collections days will differ slightly over the festive period, meaning some collections will be earlier and some later. We ask that you carefully check your revised collection day and make sure your bin is presented by 6:30am that day. You can visit the council's website at www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/rubbish-and-recycling if you need the list of revised collections dates and a quick reminder of what can and can't be recycled.

Cllr Penny Carpenter, chairman of the environment committee, said: "Contamination remains an issue across the county, with people putting the wrong waste items into their recycling bins, and this issue becomes even more relevant during the Christmas and New Year period. We encourage everyone to take the relevant steps to recycle right this festive period and help make this Christmas a green one."