Shoppers are being encouraged to recycle their Christmas cards, with a retail giant pledging to plant one tree for every 1,000 cards donated in their Broughton store throughout January.

The Woodland Trust and M&S have set an ambitious target to collect and recycle more than six million cards across the UK, which would mean more than 6,000 new trees in the ground.

If everyone in Cheshire donates one Christmas card, more than 332 trees could be planted.

Upton resident and long-time supporter of the festive M&S scheme, Michael Main, is spearheading support for the campaign in Cheshire and encouraging others to make a note in their diaries to drop their cards off at M&S after the Christmas break.

'Being part of this is fantastic'

He said: “This scheme is a great way to give something back to our local areas and environment after the Christmas season. It’s always good to see new trees being planted when so many are being cut down elsewhere. Knowing that we’ve been a part of the scheme feels fantastic and if we can encourage even more people to donate the difference to our local environment will be huge.”

TV presenter Julia Bradbury is also backing this year’s charitable scheme.

He said: “Through collecting more than 32 million cards over the last four years, the public and M&S have helped us plant more than 32,000 trees. The beauty of the M&S Christmas Card Scheme lies in its simplicity. People simply need to collect up all their cards after Christmas, which are often lying about, take them to their local M&S store – there are bins in most stores – and M&S will do the rest.”

More details about the scheme are available at www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/crs.