Recycling bosses at Bradford Council are calling on people to help reduce the mountain of rubbish produced by this year's Christmas excesses and to cut their waste in 2006.

During last year's festive season, Bradford threw away 40,000 tonnes of rubbish.

Although more than half of this waste could be recycled, about 90 per cent ended up in landfill sites.

However this year the Council hopes to get as much as possible of the excesses of Christmas recycled.

Among the items which can be recycled are paper, card, plastic and glass bottles, metal cans and tins, clothes and even Christmas trees.

And recycling chiefs hope that it will set a trend for people to get into the habit of recycling to make it a greener 2006.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, executive member for the environment, said: "Christmas always involves a lot of fun and festivities, but it also brings a huge amount of extra waste that we no longer have the capacity to bury in landfill.

"Space is rapidly running out and everyone needs to think about reducing and recycling the waste we produce."

Meanwhile environmental charity the Woodland Trust is encouraging people to recycle their Christmas cards. The cards can be recycled at Tesco stores and high street branches of WH Smith from tomorrow until the 31st.

More than 58 million cards were recycled last year but a staggering one billion cards ended up in bins across the country - weighing 22,000 tonnes, or 55 jumbo jets.

It is hoped the move will not only help boost the city's recycling figures, but also cut down on the number of fly-tipped trees that line the city's streets each year.

Recycling is one of the principle messages of the Telegraph & Argus' Bin it for Bradford campaign.

UPM Shotton, the company which produces the paper the T&A is printed on, has come up with a series of tips to help make this festive season a greener one.

These include:

l buying loose fruit and veg instead of packaged items

l reusing supermarket carrier bags

l composting leftover vegetables and peelings from festive dinners

l taking empty bottles to the bottle bank.

Craig Robinson, of UPM Shotton, said: "With the community's help we can continue to reduce the staggering amount of waste that Bradford puts into landfill each year."

The Council's recycling hotline can be contacted on (01274) 438883 to give advice on how and where to recycle.