Festive waste overflows bottle banks in England

Recycling centres face a backlog of overflowing bins as the evidence of England's Christmas and new year celebrations waits to be disposed of.

Pictures of overflowing bottle banks at recycling centres have emerged on social media following the festive period.

Rows of bottles have been building up on the ground at a recycling centres across the country.

Councils have warned of "extremely large volumes" of waste and recycling.

Residents have taken to Twitter to message councils about overflowing bins following the alteration of collection timetables over the festive period.

Adam, writing as @RomanyRiser, challenged the London Borough of Bexley over its pledge to investigate as a criminal offence what it has described as "fly-tipping" of rubbish, when many of the overflowing items were left to be recycled.

And Shane Calvert from Redcar Shane Calvert from Redcar tweeted: "I've done a tip run for all the Xmas cardboard and we're still overflowing with recycling (and that's a big family size bin). Less collections over Xmas is a joke."

Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council said it was working to clear recycling points but urged people not to leave things on the ground.

Greenwich council, in London, 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.

There have been similar scenes in Plymouth.

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