Staffordshire County Council are reminding residents to recycle their real Christmas trees rather than throwing them in the rubbish bin. 

There are 14 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) across Stoke which accept real fir trees. 

The council is again running its TreeCycle campaign to urge people not to put real trees in the black bin, but take them to a HWRC instead. 

Last Christmas 325 tonnes of trees were recycled, compared to 220 tonnes the year before. 

All HWRCs are open as usual (Staffordshire County Council).

Simon Tagg, Staffordshire County Council's Cabinet member for Environment, Infrastructure and Climate Change, said: "Last year's TreeCycle campaign was a great success, increasing the number of real trees recycled by almost 50%.

"The trees are either turned into wood chips and spread on footpaths on our country parks or to be used at county farms."

Apart from closure on New Year's Day, Staffordshire's HWRCs will be open as usual.

As well as trees, they will be accepting the usual range of household waste, including cardboard packaging, as part of the county's commitment to reducing waste.