AFTER celebrating a white Christmas, householders are now being encouraged to make it green - by recycling their real trees.

The public can take their trees, as well as other festive waste, to their local household waste recycling centre, some local parks or leave it out to be collected with their green waste.

All of the recycled trees will be shredded and turned into nutrient rich mulch, which will be used to fertilize woodlands in the region.

Last year, more than six million trees nationwide were thrown out after Christmas, creating more than 9,000 tonnes of additional rubbish.

The scheme to encourage people to recycle is a joint venture between Red Rose Forest - Greater Manchester's community forest - and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.

Around 300,000 trees were recycled in Greater Manchester last year, but both groups are keen to see this increase, with only five-and-a-half years of landfill left in the north west.

Real Christmas trees can be recycled at one of the three houshold waste recycling sites in the borough - Fernhill in Bury ,Cemetery Road in Radcliffe, and Clifton Road in Prestwich.

To find out more about Christmas tree collection points in parks go to www.sort-it.net