ALMOST 17,000 Christmas trees have been recycled and used as compost in Glasgow parks.

They were from kerbside collections or handed into recycling centres or tree collection points in Pollok, Alexandra and Kelvingrove parks. Trees taken to the parks were reduced to wood chips and used for compost.

It avoided them going to landfill sites and helped save the city money.

The move was part of a city-wide initiative to boost recycling and figures show blue bin recycling levels rose 21% between December 27 and January 12, with 1245 tonnes of paper and packaging) sent for recycling.

Glass recycling through household purple bins also increased in the same period.

Almost 387 tonnes of glass was collected through kerbside collections by the council which, compared to average daily collections for the same length of time through the year, was an increase of 95%.

Alistair Watson, the council's spokesman for land and environmental services, said: "It has been very encouraging to see people take heed of the need to recycle and also help divert such large amounts of waste away from landfill.

"As a council, we want to make Glasgow one of Europe's most sustainable cities and cutting our carbon emissions is one of the ways in which we are doing this.

"This year we gave residents three different disposal options for real Christmas trees. Those collected in the brown bins or taken to the recycling centres have been sent for composting and the trees taken to the parks are chipped and shredded on site for use within the parks.

"As a council, we will continue to work on reducing the city's carbon emissions."

vivienne.nicoll@eveningtimes.co.uk