Residents living in South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City are being reminded that only bin collections that would have been on Good Friday will be affected by the upcoming Easter bank holidays.
Households with a collection falling on Good Friday (3 April) will need to put their bins out four days earlier than usual, for collection on Monday 30 March. All other bin days during the Easter period remain the same as usual.
Changes to bin collections in Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire
| Usual Collection Date | Revised collection date |
| Good Friday 3 April | Monday 30 March 4 days early |
There are no other changes
Cllr Natalie Warren-Green, Lead Cabinet Member for Environment at South Cambridgeshire District Council said: “Easter is a highlight of spring for many of our residents, being a time of joy and celebration, although it can unfortunately be a time that generates a lot of waste too, as well as happy gatherings. Apart from the estimated 8,000 tonnes of packaging used on Easter eggs sold in the UK, 24% of Brits admit to throwing away at least one chocolate egg. That amounts to 3,000 tonnes of chocolate wasted – and all of the farmers’ and producers’ labour, fuel, and water wasted with it.”
Chocolate prices have risen even more than other foods in recent years, partly due to heavy rains and crop diseases in the two main producing countries Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. But 47% of Brits say they still plan to buy three or more chocolate eggs.
Cllr Rosy Moore, Executive Councillor for Climate Action and Environment at Cambridge City Council said: “It's lovely to receive chocolate Easter eggs, arrange egg hunts for our children and to give our families and friends chocolate at Easter, but sometimes this means we have more chocolate than we know what to do with. But please don't throw your uneaten Easter eggs away as they can easily be used in any recipe that requires chocolate... or even be added to those that don't! You can melt them down to make something like brownies, break them up into small pieces to create chocolate chips for biscuits or banana bread or even grate them onto banana split or onto pancakes... the possibilities are endless. And if there’s just too much chocolate around you can even freeze them to eat later.”
Most Easter egg packaging can be recycled, including cardboard, plastic and foil, which should be saved up and scrunched into a cricket-ball-sized ball to aid sorting processes.
Residents of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire can check how to recycle hundreds of items and download a tailored bin collection calendar at www.greatercambridgwaste.org
Greater Cambridge Shared Waste, a partnership between Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils, collects recycling and rubbish from around 131,000 households across the city of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.
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