City of York Council's Neighbourhood Services team collected 101 tonnes of garden waste when collections resumed in the first week of January , the majority of which was made up of used Christmas trees. A further 44 tonnes of garden waste was also taken to the household waste recycling centres for composting.

Every year about 8 million Christmas trees are bought in the UK to decorate homes during the festive period and most are thrown away in January

Geoff Derham, head of waste services at the council said: "By recycling Christmas trees residents can make a real difference to the amount of rubbish which ends up in landfill and people can either put their trees in their garden waste bin or take them along to one of the household waste recycling centres for recycling. However, it's even better to buy a living Christmas tree, which can be dug up and used year after year to decorate the home."

The recycled trees are mixed with other green waste, before being shredded and made into compost.

The week after Christmas and new year also saw record breaking amounts of recyclable material being collected from York households. Over 260 tonnes of paper, cans, glass, paper and cardboard were collected and is the largest amount collected in a single week since collections started four years ago.

Geoff Derham thanked residents for their efforts, saying: "We are absolutely delighted by the efforts of residents. The service is successful in diverting waste away from landfill and with the continued expansion of cardboard collections we hope to break more records in the future."