PEOPLE in Chard, Ilminster and Crewkerne are being told there are plenty of easy ways to avoid sending your Christmas tree to costly, wasteful landfill, where it will decay to produce polluting greenhouse gases.

The Somerset Waste Partnership has given the following advice: · Take decoration-free natural trees to any recycling site and add them to the garden waste skip for composting into Revive soil conditioner.

· Put the tree - under six feet, decoration-free - beside your paid-for garden waste collection day between 7-18 January for composting.

· You can home compost it, especially if it can be chipped or shredded, to create your own free garden mulch.

· If you bought it with roots and have looked after it while indoors, plant it out in your garden.

· And if your tree was rented or came in a pot from your garden, it can be returned to grow and be the centrepiece of Christmas next year.

If none of these is possible, then trees for landfill can be put out beside your wheeled bin or black sacks on your refuse collection day up to January 18.

At Viridor, which operates all 18 Somerset recycling sites, regional manager Patrick Murray said: “This year, we're expecting thousands of Christmas trees will be brought in to the county's recycling centres and turned into our quality compost, Revive.

“As well as Christmas trees, we can recycle 32 items at the 18 recycling centres across Somerset. Bring them down to your local recycling centre so they can be transformed into new materials and products.”

Roger Hay, head of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association, supports the “tree-cycling” initiative.

He said: “It's really important that people put their old tree to good use, ensuring that valuable, rich nutrients can be returned to the soil to help the growth of other British produce.”

Kerbside services and recycling sites returned to their usual schedule on Monday (January 7).

For details of recycling and waste services, visit www.somersetwaste.gov.uk.