OXFORD City Council is giving residents an unusual early Christmas present — a roll of compostable liners.

The liners can be picked up from today at either the council chambers in St Aldate’s, or the Marsh Road depot in Cowley. People need to bring along the bin tag which would have been placed on their bins last week.

The authority is also giving out details about collections over the festive period. Most will take place two days after their normal day, but a full list is available at oxford.gov.uk And 17 places have been set up to recycle Christmas trees. People can drop off their trees free of charge in the first two weeks of January. They will be recycled into woodchip which will be used in the city’s parks.

The locations are also available from the council’s website.

Council spokesman Louisa Dean said: “Over Christmas we generate around 30 per cent more waste and most of this can be recycled.”