Ok so it’s just two days till Christmas … that day we’ve all been working towards for weeks now. You’ve bought and wrapped presents … you’ve bought a tree and decorated it and now it’s time to sit back and wait for the big day to arrive.

Of course it is … what more could you be doing other than looking forward to having the family together and giving out all those great presents that are waiting under the tree?

Well you could be environmentally friendly and planning what you’re going to do with all the rubbish that’s left over after that big day and all the fun of the presents. It’s a bit strange really … right now there’s nothing that could be described as rubbish but by the end of Christmas day a lot of stuff that’s “good” now is going to be nothing but rubbish.

All the wrapping paper that’s been torn off the presents and discarded … you just know that there’s going to be a mountain of it. All that packaging and cardboard boxes that the presents come packed in … there’ll be another mountain of that stuff. What are you going to do with all that?

And then there’s the tree itself … what are you going to do with that once you’ve taken all the decorations down?

Are you planning on recycling all that rubbish and the unwanted tree? I certainly hope you are. I hope you’re planning on folding up all that old wrapping paper so that it won’t take up too much room in the recycling bin or crate.

I hope that you’re collapsing all those cardboard boxes and putting them into the recycling bin or crate too. Of course there’s so much to recycle that you’re probably going to run out of room in your bin or crate so I hope you’re planning on either hauling it in your car to the nearest recycling center or to the town dump or you’re going to store it in your garage and get rid of it in the recycling bin or crate over the coming weeks.

But that still leaves the tree … what are you going to do with the tree? Many local areas are offering residents the opportunity to have their tree fed through a chipper and turned into mulch and that’s a great way of recycling unwanted Christmas trees.

If your local authorities are offering that kind of service then be sure to take them up on the offer. These days there’s really no excuse for not being environmentally friendly and recycling just about everything that we don’t want after Christmas and you’ll be giving the planet a Christmas present if you do recycle.