AIRBORNE life-savers have made a festive plea for people to play Santa this festive season by filling a Christmas recycling sack.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is calling on people to have a clear-out of unwanted clothes, shoes, bags, curtains and bedding and donate them to their recycling campaign.

“The lead up to the festive season and the Christmas period itself is a really good time to have a clear-out of those wardrobes and drawers,” said the service’s partnership manager Katie Collinson.

“So we’re asking people if they will make us a gift of their unwanted items – whether it’s that dodgy Christmas jumper or slippers, or that dress that’s been hung up for years but never worn.”

She added: “We work closely with our recycling partner BIU Group and since we launched our recycling scheme back in 2005, over £1m has been raised through recycling across the region.

“Recycling is worth around £300,000 a year to the charity and is a valuable sustainable income stream for us - so filling a recycling sack is a Christmas gift that doesn’t cost people any money but means so much to us.”

The charity has over 250 textile recycling banks at household waste sites, supermarkets and car parks across the county. You can find out where your nearest bank is by either going to the website biugroup.co.uk or by calling 01422-418 618.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance needs to raise £9,990 each day to keep its two helicopters in the air and maintained – the equivalent to £3.6m a year.