IT IS that time of year again. Across the borough, the trees are coming down, decorations are being returned to attics and the festive clutter is being cleared out for the bin men.

But how many people realise the role that last year's cards, Christmas trees and even their threadbare old stockings could be playing in making Bolton a healthier place to live?

At Christmas, Boltonians make twice as much waste as they do at any other time of year.

Over the festive period, 11,200 tonnes of rubbish - enough to fill 1,200 dustbin wagons - has been left out for the borough's refuse collectors.

Although 60 per cent of this garbage could be reused, rather than being disposed of in environmentally harmful land-fill sites or incinerators, only 10 per cent currently makes it into the green boxes, composting wheelie bins and paper collection sacks available for recycling.

To demonstrate how many items in the average household bin could be put to better use, the Bolton Evening News invited one eco-friendly family to keep a record of everything they threw away and recycled over Christmas. And, despite their best intentions, the Ellison family, of Beechcroft Avenue, Darcy Lever, were surprised to discover how much more they could be doing to make the most of their waste.

Over the 12 days of Christmas, mum Susannah, aged 30, and her five children Jamie, 11; Charley, eight; Leah, three; Katie, two; and Tai, one, worked their way through 59 glass bottles, 72 tea bags, 48 nappies, 180 chocolate wrappers, one baked bean tin, three margarine tubs and 14 bottles of shampoo and bubble bath.

Also thrown away were 40 Christmas cards, three bin liners full of wrapping paper, a plateful of left-over turkey, 36 batteries, two soap powder boxes, two bottles of bleach, ten pounds of potato and vegetable peelings and an old t-shirt.

Full-time mum Susannah was amazed by how much waste her family produced over the festive season.

And she was even more shocked to discover how many items in her household bin could be used for recycling in a variety of different ways.

She said: "I try to do my best for the environment because it's important we try to put something back into the planet.

"But there are so many things that can be reused that I would never have even thought about."

Their home is one of 46,000 across the borough which has been provided with a green collection box by the council's Commercial Services department.

The scheme was this week expanded into parts of east Bolton including Breightmet, Tonge, Hall'i th'Wood, the Haulgh and Great Lever, thanks to funding from East Bolton Regeneration and the Great Lever Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder project.

The family has also been supplied with a number of sacks for the collection of waste paper but they do not have the green wheelie bin - available to 40 per cent of the borough's homes - which can be used for collecting items for composting

As part of their recycling efforts, Susannah and her young family separated all the glass and plastic bottles and plastic tubs into the green box.

Soap powder boxes and other paper items were put into the paper sacks and their Christmas cards are to be taken to either WHSmith or Tesco for recycling. And the family's real Christmas tree is also to be collected by the council. It will then be shredded and spread across the borough's parks to suppress weeds and put nutrients back into the soil.

Jim Cunliffe, recycling officer at Bolton Council, praised the family's efforts but explained that they could still be doing more.

He explained that items such as used tea bags, left over turkey and vegetable peelings - which were all binned - could instead have been put in a green bin and used to create compost.

Even Susannah's old t-shirt could have been disposed of at a clothing bin at one of the borough's 20 major recycling points.

It could then have been transformed into furniture stuffing or - if it was in good enough condition - passed on to charity shops for resale as clothing.

It is estimated that Boltonians have thrown away more than two million plastic bottles, two million cans and one million bottles and jars over the Christmas period.

Some items can be recycled in quite surprising ways.

The plastic bottles the Ellisons have thrown away will now be sold off and could be used to make fleece jackets.

The empty baked bean tin could be used in the manufacture of washing machines or other white kitchen goods.

Drinks cans and bottles will be recycled back into cans and bottles at between 20 and 95 per cent less energy than it costs to create them from scratch.

Old clothes that are not wearable can be transformed into industrial hand wipes.

Schemes are also in place to send unwanted or replaced mobile phones to developing countries or if they are not in working order to break them down and reuse their individual components.

Freepost envelopes are available from Argos, Sainsbury's or Tesco.

Jim said: "The planet is running out of basic raw materials and sooner or later everything will have been mined.

"Recycling also helps to prolong the land-fill sites which we need to get rid of the items which cannot be recycled."

For more information on recycling your Christmas leftovers, visit www.sort-it.net or to find out more about council collections or drop off points call (01204) 336937.