ONCE Twelfth Night arrives and the decorations come down, don’t forget to recycle your real Christmas tree – by taking it along to one of the County Council’s recycling centres.

By doing so, you’ll be helping the environment and raising money for a worthwhile charity at the same time.

As part of its annual Treecycle campaign, the Council’s waste management contractor, Veolia, is encouraging residents to take their trees to their local recycling centre in January so they can be shredded for composting or chipped for use in parks and gardens.

For every 50 tonnes of Christmas trees and other garden waste sent for recycling throughout January, Veolia will donate £100 to The Ear Foundation – the chosen charity of County Council Chairman Coun Mrs Pauline Allan for her year in office.

“The Ear Foundation is an excellent charity which does such sterling work, helping to transform the lives of deaf people,” said Coun Allan.

“I hope residents recycling their real trees this year will help us raise as much money as possible to enable that work to continue.”

Kevin Parker, of Veolia, said: “Our Treecycle campaign has proved really popular over the last eight years.

“Last year over 650 tonnes of trees were recycled rather than being sent to landfill. This year we are aiming for our recycling rates to be the best yet.”

The County Council’s recycling centres are open from 8am to 4pm.