Don't let your Christmas greetings go to waste!

Gloucestershire County Council is backing a national campaign aimed at recycling as many Christmas cards as possible.

The Woodland Trust and Recycle Now hope to raise enough funds to plant 24,000 trees. To achieve this, a staggering 100 million cards need to be collected for recycling throughout the country- that’s over 950,000 cards in Gloucestershire alone.

Recycling Christmas cards is a simple way everyone can cut down on their festive waste and make a positive contribution to tackling climate change.  

At the County Council’s Shire Hall, all 1500 staff are being encouraged to recycle their Christmas cards.  Special collection bins will be placed throughout the whole building.

Meanwhile shoppers in Gloucestershire are also being urged to hand in their used cards at branches of WH Smith, Tesco, Marks and Spencer and TK Maxx. All of these stores, which are taking part in the annual Christmas Card Recycling Scheme, will have recycling boxes.

For more information on the scheme or for further help and ideas on recycling over the festive period visit www.woodland-trust.org.uk/cards