This Christmas Bradford Council is encouraging residents to go green by home composting everything from paper hats to vegetable peelings, fallen pine needles and wood ash from the fire.

Christmas can be an incredibly wasteful time of year, with even more food and other waste sent to landfill than usual, so it is an ideal time to invest in a composting bin and make a free, organic fertiliser for the garden.

In fact, Christmas time is a great opportunity to get a perfect mix of materials for a rich, dark and healthy compost. Uncooked peelings from vegetables such as parsnips, potatoes, carrots and Brussel sprouts are a great source of nitrogen-rich "green" material; while carbon-rich items, such as paper chains, the insides of crackers - including paper hats - and cardboard packaging, help make-up the "brown" items.

Lynne Gunn, of the Recycle Now Compost at Home Campaign, says: "Christmas is a lot of fun, but with all the extra cooking, and gift wrapping, the extra amount thrown away at this time of year can create havoc with the environment.

"By diverting this extra waste into a compost bin instead of sending it to landfill, you can help to protect your surroundings and make a great free compost for the garden in the process."

To encourage residents to get into the home composting spirit thet Council has teamed up with the national Recycle Now Compost at Home Scheme. Compost bins are available from as little as £8. For more details, check out the website www.recyclenow.com/compost or phone 0845 077 0757.