Christmas trees will generate thousands of tonnes of compost for the council as they are recycled over the next month.

Sutton Council says the number of real Christmas trees it expects to chip and turn into compost will weigh 30 tonnes - the same as five African elephants or 15 family cars.

People are able to leave their Christmas trees out with their usual recycling between now and Saturday, February 2, and the council will take them to be composted - half the compost will be returned to the council while Viridor, the council's waste disposal partner, will keep the rest.

Councillor Colin Hall, deputy leader of Sutton Council, said: "It’s pleasing that we are still able to make good use out of our Christmas trees despite the festive season finishing a few weeks back.

"We wanted to provide this service to our residents to not only save them the difficulty of disposing of their trees but also to allow us to make use of the waste across the borough’s numerous parks and open spaces which we are extremely proud of.

"This way, residents help us save money and ensure that we keep a cleaner, greener borough for the year ahead."