Irish householders will generate approximately 74,000 tonnes of packaging waste over Christmas.

That’s according to a new survey by Repak on people’s attitudes to recycling at Christmas.

Irish people will receive nearly 12 million Christmas gifts this year – nearly all packaged in some form.

Laura Sherry of Repak has this advice: “You are definitely going to find that your bill is going to get more full over the Christmas holidays than it usually would.

“So flattening down everything, making sure your items are clean and dry before putting them into the recycling bin and making sure they are the correct items that you are putting into the bin.

“Then any other items you have that don’t fit into the recycling bin, we would say bring it down to your local recycling centre.”