AS Twelfth Night (January 6) approaches and thoughts turn to ‘un-decking’ the halls and taking down the tree, The Woodland Trust is urging people to help protect the UK’s woodlands by dropping their Christmas cards off at their local Marks & Spencer store.

For every 1,000 cards recycled in store, M&S will fund the planting of one tree. The UK is already 10,000 trees richer thanks to the efforts of the store’s customers’ last year – when 10 million cards were dropped into shops.

This season, special card collection bins are already in place and will remain so until the end of the month.

Jo Mathieson of the Woodland Trust said: “By recycling cards via the Marks & Spencer recycling scheme, you are playing a key part in turning unwanted waste into much needed trees – so it goes one better than simply recycling your cards in your green wheelie bins.

“By dropping your cards off at M&S stores, you’re helping us to plant new woodlands or, to think of it another way, grow new homes for hundreds of species, from dormice to woodpeckers, beetles to butterflies.”