Have a wonderful, not wasteful, Christmas

Christmas may be the season to be merry, but Resource Cumbria is urging people to keep their waste to a minimum by recycling as much as possible.

The festive period will see Cumbrians produce masses more rubbish that in the average week. As a county we will generate over Christmas an extra six million glass bottles, 8.3 million cards and four million extra drinks cans.

But at least 60 per cent of domestic waste can be recycled so Resource Cumbria is asking everyone to make an extra effort to make Christmas wonderful, not wasteful.

The message is being reinforced by the "I like the sound of that." advertising campaign on the radio, in the local press and through local establishments.

Christmas wrapping paper, cards and real Christmas trees may seem to be a disposable features of the festive season, but they should be recycled once the festivities are finished and Christmas dinner produces plenty of peelings which can be composted. These are just a handful of the things everyone can do do help minimise waste - below are 12 top tips for reducing, re-using and recycling over Christmas.

Ho Ho Ho.

Here are our recommended 12 days of Christmas top tips:

1. It`s estimated we will create more than three million tonnes of extra rubbish in Britain this Christmas. More than half can be recycled, so please use your nearest recycling facility, or recycle on your doorstep via your council collection.

2. Plastic and cardboard packaging from presents can often be recycled at your local Household Waste Recycling Centre or with kerbside recycling collections - so please think before throwing it away.

3. Compost is great for the garden. Start your own compost heap this Christmas with all your vegetable peelings from Christmas dinner and by next Christmas, you`ll have free nutritious compost to help make your garden bloom.

4. Buy rechargeable batteries this year for all your children`s toys and electrical goods and help save on the millions of batteries that go to landfill each year.

5. Make use of your kerbside facility and/or bring site and recycle all the jars, bottles and cans that you use over the festive period

6. Make a New Year`s resolution that you can keep this year - recycle more stuff, more often. Kerbside collection and Household Waste Recycling Centres are making recycling even easier so you have a good chance at sticking with it.

7. To make room for all your children`s new toys take last year`s to a local youth club or to the charity shop where they will be given a good home.

8. Make room for this season`s latest trends by clearing out your wardrobe and taking unwanted clothes to the textile collection point at bring-sites and supermarket car parks or your local charity shop.

9. Create a talking point this Christmas with glasses made from recycled Grolsh bottles, these and lots of other great recycled Christmas gift ideas can be found on the recycle now website www.recyclenow.com

10. CD`s, books and shoes can be recycled at most supermarket recycling facilities - so make room for your new presents by recycling your old ones.

11. More than eight million real Christmas trees will be bought this year. Most will be thrown away. If you chose a real tree this year, contact your local DIY retailer or garden centre to see if they are running recycling schemes - lots of them do - or take them to your local HWRC.

12. Support the Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme by taking all your Christmas cards to your local Tesco or WHSmith who will send them to be recycled.

The following Household Waste Recycling Centres will be open every day apart from Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year`s day:

- Clay Flatts, Workington

- Glasson Industrial Estate, Maryport

- Canal Head, Kendal

- Rothay Holme, Ambleside

- Yeathouse Quarry, Frizington

- Redmills Quarry, Millom

- Project Furness, Ormsgill

- Flusco, Penrith

- Hobsons Lane, Kirkby Stephen.

However, Rome Street in Carlisle, Syke Park in Wigton, Guides Lot at Grange-over-Sands and Morecambe Road in Ulverston will be closed on Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24th, as well as on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years` Day.