AFTER the Christmas binge comes the post-Yuletide hangover.

And it is isn’t limited to headaches, dry mouths and the inability to get out of bed.

Our festive excesses leave another kind of hangover – the year’s largest pile of rubbish.

And the staff at Sita recycling and refuse plant, Hillhouse, are responsible for sorting the trash mountain into material which can be recycled or incinerated and converted into electricity.

The plant receives 200 tonnes of rubbish per day but when the bin lorries roll in with their first collection of the year the amount increases by almost one-third.

The plant handles an average of 2,248 tonnes of recyclable rubbish every month, but in January the figure is nearly 3,000 tonnes.

Rubbish and recyclable materials are dropped off in piles almost reaching the plant’s high ceiling.

The plant receives a surge in waste immediately after Easter and Mother’s Day but the post-Christmas rubbish rise is unparalleled throughout the year.

As most of us like a Christmas and New Year’s Eve tipple it’s no surprise that the operation receives a vastly increased influx of cans and bottles.