Recycle your Christmas tree with St Clare Hospice this January

THIS January 2020, you can recycle your Christmas tree with Harlow Council, who will come and collect your tree from your home in return for a donation to local charity, St Clare Hospice.

According to figures, approximately 6 million Christmas trees will end up in landfill this year, which amounts to around 250 tonnes of waste that could be used for compost. Local schemes, such as Harlow Council’s annual recycling project, help to reduce the negative environmental effects of waste post-Christmas – instead taking trees and turning them into wood chippings and compost, in partnership with local waste management service, Veolia.

If you live in CM17, CM18, CM19 or CM20, your household is eligible to register their tree with Harlow Council’s Christmas tree recycling scheme. It costs just £2.10 to have a tree collected, which Harlow Council will donate directly to St Clare Hospice – with waste management service Veolia match-funding all money raised.

Harlow Council will collect real spruce, fir and pine trees from January through to March, so there is plenty of time to arrange your collection.

Earlier this year, in January 2019, St Clare’s Christmas tree recycling programme collected more than 200 trees, raising over £2,350 in vital funds for their local care and support services. In 2020, the Hospice will roll out the project to a wider area, reducing waste further with aims to raise even more money to pay for the charity’s services for the local community.

To register your tree(s), all you have to do is go online and visit harlow.gov.uk/green-waste or by phone 01279 446655. Registration is now open.

Harlow Council’s scheme runs alongside St Clare Hospice’s annual Recycle Your Christmas Tree programme, which you can find out more about at stclarehospice.org.uk/event/recycle-christmas-tree