PEOPLE across Burnley and Padiham are being urged to recycle their unwanted clothes and follow in the footsteps of the borough's youngsters.

Schoolchildren from several schools have been raising awareness of recycling by donating 400 sacks of unwanted clothing to the Salvation Army, with the added incentive of a signed Burnley Football Club shirt for the child who collected the most.

Schools that took part in the project were St Peter's Primary, St Stephen's Primary, Rosegrove Infants, Worsthorne Primary, Hargher Clough Primary, St Leonard's Primary, Christ the King and Heasandford Primary.

Pupils were asked to take their unwanted clothing to school and between them the schools filled 400 refuse sacks -- more than 2.5 tonnes.

Christ the King donated the greatest amount, with more than 150 bags of clothes. But the winner of the signed shirt was Ben Howarth, of St Peter's Primary, who alone collected 25 sacks of clothes, shoes and household textiles.

The scheme was organised by Burnley Borough Council, which has been working with the Salvation Army for the past eight years in collecting unwanted clothes and shoes.

More recently both organisations have been working in partnership with EnCams, formerly the Tidy Britain Group, to promote the use of the textile banks situated throughout the borough as part of national campaign to increase public awareness of reusing rather than throwing away.

Any old clothes, shoes or textiles can be taken to one of the Salvation Army banks at any of the council's recycling sites.

They can be found in the car parks at Asda and Sainsbury's, at Queen Lancashire Way and Victoria, in Bancroft Road, The Brunshaw Hotel, Disraeli Street and Edward Street in Burnley and Partridge Hill Street and St John's Road in Padiham.