With Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day falling on the weekend this year, Dorset Council doesn’t have to reschedule bin collections.

Therefore residents should put out their bins on their regular collection day.

However, bearing in mind that people accumulate additional rubbish over the festive period, Dorset Council will collect up to two extra sacks of rubbish beside your bin on your first rubbish collection after Christmas Day.

There will be no garden waste collections between Christmas Day and Monday 10 January.

Household recycling centres will be open from 9am to 4pm daily, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day.

Extra recycling, including glass and food, will be collected on your recycling collection day, provided it has been separated correctly and placed in a suitable sturdy container that can be easily lifted by one person – no bags or cardboard boxes.

The council is asking people to put out their glass for collection before Christmas. This ensures you have as much space as possible in your glass box going into the festive period, helping prevent over spilling containers, and reduces the amount of extra glass which will need to be collected after Christmas.

Here are the things that can be recycled.

Cooked and uncooked food, using your food waste bin; wrapping paper but not foil or glittery paper; cardboard boxes, flattened and broken up; cardboard and hard plastic packaging but no polystyrene or thin film, and Christmas cards and envelopes.

Dorset Council does not collect Christmas trees of any kind with rubbish or recycling at the kerbside. You can recycle your real Christmas tree by: home composting it; cutting it up and placing it in your garden waste bin; taking it to a household recycling centre or booking a Christmas tree collection with a Dorset-based charity or service.

Cllr Laura Miller, Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for Customer and Community Services, said: “Normally bin collection days are a little different over Christmas, so we wanted to make sure everyone is aware that this year everyone needs to put their bins out on their usual day of the week, even if it’s a bank holiday.

“I also want to pass my thanks and best wishes to all the waste services employees who will be working hard over the busy Christmas period. We can all make their jobs a little easier by going into the festive period with empty glass boxes and making sure our waste is separated correctly and put out on the right day.”