CHRISTMAS has meant literally tons more work for a town's refuse collectors.

Binmen at Middlesbrough shifted 288 tonnes of household, trade and street waste on Wednesday - 70 tonnes above the average for the four Mondays leading up the Christmas.

The waste would normally have been collected last Monday, but with both it and Tuesday being bank holidays this year, refuse collections are two days later than usual. Wednesday was their first day back to work after Christmas.

Much of the extra weight consisted of discarded Christmas wrappings, food scraps, bottles and cans - rubbish which had not been sorted for recycling.

Ken Sherwood, Middlesbrough Council's waste services manager, said: "Bottles and cans can be separated for recycling. Newspapers and magazines can be put in the blue recycling bags and the more bags we collect, the more goes to charity. There are also ten recycling sites across the town with skips for glass bottles, plastic bottles, cans and paper.''

For details on waste collection and recycling services over the holidays, contact (01642) 726001.