ORGANISATIONS in York and North Yorkshire are looking forward to a "green Christmas" by recycling their festive waste.

They are following the lead given by Olympic rowing hero Matthew Pinsent, who has thrown his weight behind a national effort to encourage people to join in the recycling efforts.

From Christmas cards and trees to Christmas catalogues, City of York Council wants residents to reuse and recycle their waste to help reduce its £200,000 Christmas recycling bill. Council suggestions include encouraging residents to use its kerbside recycling service to recycle food tins, drinks cans and paper.

Catalogues, flyers and brochures can be collected in the service's blue bag, or taken to a recycling site.

Christmas trees can be recycled at one of the council's household waste and recycling centres, while residents who take their trees to a centre between January 2 and 12 can enter a prize draw to win a garden bench, a compost bin or bags of compost.

Christmas cards can be taken along to Tesco or WH Smith, where recycling bins will stand in all their York stores.

The initiatives are run in partnership with the Woodland Trust, and will help reduce the one billion Christmas cards that end up in bins across the UK.

The recycling bins will be in store from January 3 until the end of the month.

Meanwhile, York Hospital is preparing for the launch of its paper recycling scheme.

Each week, newspapers and magazines will be collected from hospital wards as part of the "Billy Blue Box" scheme, organised through a partnership between York Hospitals NHS Trust and waste management company Yorwaste.

Up to 100 tonnes of paper will be recycled each year, instead of being disposed of through the hospital's normal waste stream.

The council's Foss Islands and Towthorpe household waste sites will be open on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, but Beckfield Lane will be closed. All three sites will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

For more ideas on how to rethink your Christmas rubbish, phone 01904 551551 or email recycling.team@york.gov.uk.

Christmas tips:

TIPS to reduce or reuse Christmas waste

Buy gifts like theatre tickets.

Make gift tags from old Christmas cards.

Reuse good quality wrapping paper.

Buy loose fruit and vegetables instead of packaged products.

For parties, rent or borrow items you have not got rather than use disposable ones.

Reuse shopping bags for Christmas shopping.

Updated: 11:25 Monday, December 20, 2004