PEOPLE who haven't yet thrown out their Christmas rubbish are being urged to recycle it instead.

Across the country, an extra three million tonnes of waste will be produced at this time: the equivalent weight of 32 million reindeer or 400,000 double decker buses which, parked bumper to bumper, would stretch from Bury to Lapland and back again!

Shabeena Majid from Bury Council said: "Thirty per cent more glass bottles, aluminium and steel drink cans will be dumped in our rubbish bins, as well as filling our waste bins with a third more rubbish. Remember: almost two thirds of this can be recycled or reused."