Residents without a New Year’s resolution for 2011 are being urged to take advantage of a free service to get rid of their bigger pieces of junk.

Merton Council are making a post-Christmas appeal for more people to use their bulky waste collection service, in which five big items can be jettisoned for free every three months.

Councillor Mark Betteridge, cabinet member for performance, said residents lucky enough to get new electrical appliances for Christmas should get rid of their old ones responsibly.

He said: “We believe this initiative will result in cleaner streets and reduce the number of fly tips.

“Clean streets lead to a sense of pride in where we live, which can have other important benefits such a reducing the fear of crime.”

As an alternative, residents can also check which retailers collect old appliances for recycling as part of a take-back scheme by logging on to: wrap.org.uk.

For more information on Merton Council’s bulky waste collection scheme, visit merton.gov.uk/bulky.