'TIS the season to recycle' - that's the festive message from waste disposal bosses.

Bury households will produce around 30,000 tonnes of rubbish this Christmas, including 4.4 million cards and enough wrapping paper to cover four or five football pitches.

Shabeena Majid from Bury Council said: "Christmas is the time to show good will to all men - what better way to do this than to recycle? Our landfill space is running out and we have to act. We cannot continue to bury the problem."

Residents are urged to use their recycling boxes, bags and bins, while real Christmas trees can now be put into the brown bin, provided they are chopped into small pieces. Whole trees can be taken to local recycling centres.

Greater Manchester has a recycling rate of 16.5 per cent, below the UK average of 19 per cent. Almost three-quarters of waste is buried in landfill sites. The Government wants to recycle 30 per cent of household waste by 2010.