The Impact of Seasonal Waste on Local Authorities

Each year the seasons bring waves of consumer behaviour that create distinct challenges for waste collection and disposal services. Halloween, Easter, and Christmas are major events in the UK’s retail calendar, and their environmental footprint grows alongside consumer spending.

For local authorities, these celebrations translate into short but intense surges in waste volumes, often dominated by food, packaging, and disposable decorations that strain collection schedules, budgets, and recycling systems.

Here we’ll be highlighting the struggles Local Authorities face when handling these waste surges, as well as the environmental impact of consumer behaviour.

Halloween: A Frightening Rise in Residual Waste

Halloween is one of the fastest-growing seasonal events in the UK. In 2023, consumer spending reached an estimated £1 billion, a figure that has quadrupled in just a decade. Behind the fun and festivities, however, is a growing mountain of seasonal waste.

A recent waste composition analysis, we here at Integrated Skills revealed that in the first week of November 2024, households across six local authorities put out an average of 0.3 kg of pumpkins (here’s a reminder of how to dispose of pumpkins), decorations, and spent fireworks in their residual bins (despite food waste collections being available).

It sounds like a small amount, but as Project Director Stuart Henshaw noted, “For a typical authority of 80,000 households, that’s an additional 24 tonnes of Halloween waste. Scaled nationally, this equates to over 8,500 tonnes of residual Halloween waste to collect and dispose of.”

This data illustrates how small, one-off consumer choices can create significant operational impacts. Local authorities face not only extra collection rounds and landfill costs, but also public confusion over what can and cannot be recycled or composted. For example, while pumpkins are fully compostable, they often end up in the residual stream due to lack of awareness or convenience.

While Halloween is now the UK’s third-largest retail event, Easter falls into a close second place.

Eggs, Chocolate and Mountains of Waste

Despite its family-friendly image, the environmental impact of Easter with its packaging and food waste is striking:

• Around 8,000 tonnes of packaging are generated annually from Easter egg products.
• Roughly 3,000 tonnes of chocolate go un-eaten and discarded.
• Food waste spikes, with millions of hot cross buns, roast potatoes, and vegetable portions ending up in bins after family meals.

These figures highlight how short-lived consumption patterns, driven by marketing and convenience, continue to undermine waste reduction goals.

For local authorities, Easter’s challenge lies in collecting and processing hugely mixed waste streams: plastic inserts, cardboard boxes, and foil wrappers, all produced in vast quantities but often contaminated with food residues that make recycling all the more difficult.

Christmas: The Ultimate Test

No other time of year tests the capacity of local waste services like Christmas. Between December and early January, UK households collectively produce up to 30% more waste than at any other time of year.

For context:

• In London, households throw out an extra five bags of rubbish each, adding roughly 29,000 tonnes of waste in this one city alone.
• The country discards around 114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging that goes unrecycled.
• More than one billion Christmas cards are thrown away annually.
• Food waste increases by about 30% compared to the rest of the year.

The shift to online shopping has further complicated Christmas waste management. Nearly half of all Christmas purchases are now made online, driving surges in cardboard boxes, plastic mailing bags, and filler materials as items are shipped individually. A DS Smith study found that 941 million plastic mailing bags were used by UK retailers in 2024 – that’s around 2.6 million every day.

While convenient for consumers, these trends create headaches for local authorities. They are left to process higher volumes of mixed packaging and manage overflowing recycling bins. Compounding the problem are the inevitable post-Christmas returns (especially true for the fashion sector), which generate additional transport emissions and waste when items are damaged or unsellable.

The Cost to Local Authorities

Each seasonal spike translates into tangible operational and financial impacts. Increased waste volumes require:

• Additional collection rounds, often with premium seasonal labour costs attached.
• Greater sorting and processing capacity, particularly for recyclables.
• More contamination in recycling streams as residents rush to clear festive waste.
• Higher disposal costs, especially for residual waste that cannot be recycled.

For many authorities already managing tight budgets, these short-term spikes can have long-term implications. Disposal costs rise, recycling targets are harder to meet, and collection crews face heavier workloads during periods of adverse weather and high demand.

Changing Habits and Shared Responsibility

The seasonal waste challenge highlights a broader truth: public behaviour directly shapes local waste outcomes. Convenience, habit, and awareness play powerful roles in determining whether materials are recycled, composted, or landfilled.

Encouragingly, there are signs of change. Surveys show rising public interest in sustainable packaging, with many consumers saying they would avoid brands that use excessive or non-recyclable materials. Retailers are also beginning to introduce “right-size” packaging and promote preloved or second-hand gift options.

However, there is still a significant gap between intent and action. Even when residents are aware of the sustainable option, it is not always the easiest one. Collection systems must therefore be complemented by clear communication, consistent recycling infrastructure, and behavioural nudges that make the sustainable choice the default.

Working Towards Smarter Seasonal Waste Management

For local authorities, tackling seasonal waste effectively requires data-led planning and predictive insight. By analysing waste composition and collection data (something Integrated Skills supports through its advanced Waste Composition Analysis and Route Management solutions) councils can:

• Anticipate seasonal surges and adjust collection schedules.
• Target communications to reduce contamination and promote food waste recycling.
• Monitor the effectiveness of interventions year-on-year.
• Plan future infrastructure investment based on accurate evidence, not assumptions.

Seasonal waste will never disappear entirely – celebrations are part of community life. But by aligning data, policy, and public engagement, local authorities can reduce its impact, cut unnecessary costs, and move closer to a truly circular model of resource use.

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