RESIDENTS are urged to take a "bough" for the environment by recycling their Christmas trees.

Bury Council is asking residents to take trees to any of the borough's civic amenity sites or chopped up and put into brown garden waste bins.

Christmas cards can be taken to any WH Smith or Tesco store, while newspapers and magazines can be put into the green bags for kerbside collection.

Last year more than six million Christmas trees were bought in the UK but only 750,000 (or 12.5 per cent) were recycled.

Bury has to meet strict Government and EU recycling targets. It must recycle eight per cent of its waste by next April, and 18 per cent by April 2006. The current recycling rate is six per cent, and waste is increasing at three per cent a year.

Coun Stella Smith, executive member for environment and transport, said: "Everyone's rubbish has an impact on the environment due to the fact that as waste decomposes it releases greenhouse gases.

"Every little helps, and even if you divert on extra newspaper or one bottle, it's one less we have to worry about and dispose of."