CHRISTMAS is Somerset’s most wasteful time, when tonnes of materials that should be recycled – including thousands of turkey carcasses – get buried in landfill, residents have been warned.

Faced with their family’s festive mess, many fill endless black plastic sacks, but Somerset Waste Partnership says five simple 'hacks' will prevent costly and wasteful rubbish mountains:

• Get it gone now: declutter and tidy each room before Christmas, take all recycling and rubbish to a recycling site, and donate anything good to a charity shop, or regift it.

• Eat the freezer: save money and make space for all that Christmas food, and then for leftovers. Check lovefoodhatewaste.com for tips on menus, portions and shopping.

• Wish lists, insist: make every gift wanted. Buy better, from high quality that lasts to digital, home-made and experiences. Or give the best of all: time and skills to help with tasks.

• Decorate with love and nature: not plastic tat. Use garden greenery, and compost it later, and get children to make decorations with things recycled, from old cards to pine cones.

• Recycle like a pro: check what goes where at somersetwaste.gov.uk. Dodge missed pick-ups by not putting out too much at once, or take it all, and your tree, to a recycling site.

Apart from the usual closures on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, all recycling sites will be on the standard schedules. All open at 8am; save time by going early.

With no rubbish or recycling collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day, all pick-ups will be two days later in the first festive week, and one day later in the second.

Visit www.somersetwaste.gov.uk for more on how to waste less, recycle more and save money this Christmas and throughout 2018.