Sea of empty bottles and overflowing bins after festive celebrations

Local authorities face a backlog of overflowing bins and empty bottles as the evidence of Britain’s Christmas and new year celebrations waits to be disposed of.

Photographs of overflowing bottle banks at a Berkshire recycling centre show the mammoth task awaiting councils as consumers get rid of their empties in the new year.

Row upon row of spirits, beer and wine bottles, diligently sorted by colour, were laid on the ground at the recycling centre at a supermarket near Bracknell, while piles of bin bags were waiting collection in Leeds.

Twitter users elsewhere across the UK have been messaging their local councils about overflowing bins due to altered collection timetables over the festive period.

Some reported that their rubbish had not been collected since before Christmas Day.

Greenwich council said it was working hard to collect “extremely large volumes of waste & recycling” and that it hoped to have services back to normal by January 7.

With the beginning of January synonymous with abandoned Christmas trees on street corners, councils are also advising people to recycle or replant them instead.