RESIDENTS are being urged to recycle their Christmas cards through the annual Woodland Trust scheme.

This year people in East Lancashire can take their Christmas cards to WH Smith, Tesco, Marks and Spencer and TK Maxx stores across the county any time in January to be recycled.

People across the UK have sent around one billion Christmas cards this year, weighing around the same as 55 Jumbo Jets, and the majority of these are often binned when the decorations come down on twelfth night.

County Councillor Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for planning and environment, said: "Last year in Lancashire we recycled over 51 tonnes of Christmas cards through this scheme - that was the third best performance in the country and this year we'd love to top the table."

Alex Claydon from the Woodland Trust said "Last year nationally we recycled 93 million cards and this year we are hoping to collect 100 million cards, helping us to plant 24,000 trees."

All the cards collected will be taken to paper mills, where they will be recycled into brand new paper products like cardboard, copier paper and greeting cards.