Householders can put an extra bag of Christmas rubbish out for collection

Councillor David Martin, the council's portfolio holder for streets, parks and town Centres, said: “Everyone creates more rubbish during Christmas. Even though this year, Christmas is completely different – we still anticipate a significant rise in rubbish.”

This is the third time since the first lockdown, that the council - shortlisted for the Outstanding Service Delivery Award at the Keep Britain Tidy awards have offered this service.

Coun Martin said: “Our ‘Bag It’ campaign at the end of November saw an average for 35 tonnes extra being collected daily. The extra 179.32 tonnes collected between November 30 and December 4 was a rise of 15%.”

Council leader Jason Zadrozny said: “As part of our all year round commitment to restore pride back into our communities – we are delighted to be rolling out our third ‘Bag It’ campaign of the year. The first two were a response to the coronavirus – this one is specifically to get rid of your Christmas waste. I would like to express my thanks to our waste team for agreeing to assist us to help residents this Christmas. They are wonderful!”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Ashfield District Council was the only council in Nottinghamshire to maintain a full bin collection service. It was also the only council in the UK to offer an enhanced collection service through its ‘Bag it’ campaigns and its ‘Spring into Summer’ campaign.

Plans for the council’s flagship ‘Big Ashfield Spring Clean 2021’ in February are well advanced.