NORTH-EAST families enjoying the seasonal activities of eating, drinking and giving gifts will create more than 150,000 tonnes of festive rubbish this Christmas.
Campaigners have revealed that even though most of it could be recycled, almost 90 per cent will be thrown away.
The Are You Doing Your Bit? campaign predicts that, unless people recycle or reuse products, the rubbish bins in the North-East will contain:
* 40 million Christmas cards
* 240,000 Christmas trees
* 170 tonnes of aluminium foil
* 5,000 tonnes of plastic packaging
* 3,200 tonnes of old clothes and waste textiles
* More than four sq km of wrapping paper.
Environmentalists are hoping that families will take extra measures this year to prevent adding to the UK's waste mountain.
They advise putting cans and bottles in recycling bins, taking Christmas trees to recycling facilities and making use of card recycling at stores such as WH Smith and Tesco.
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