Newham Council is urging residents to think before they throw Christmas rubbish away.

The recycling service accepts discarded wrapping paper, envelopes, cards, magazines, plastic bottles and egg boxes, as well as clean food tins and cans.

However, the service cannot recycle plastic food packaging, which should be thrown in to your green general waste wheelie bin to avoid contamination.

Real Christmas trees are collected for free by the council if you book a garden waste collection using My Newham - just make sure you remove lights and decorations first.

Cllr Ian Corbett, mayoral advisor for environment and leisure, said: “At this time of year residents often have a lot more rubbish to get rid of and it’s easy to just throw it in any old bin, but you can usually get more into your wheelie bins and bags if you recycle, it just takes a small bit of extra effort.”

For more information about recycling including waste collections, visit newham.gov.uk/waste