Make your Christmas green – recycle your tree

With the festive season in full swing, Somerset Council is reminding everyone to put recycling the Christmas tree onto their list.

The best option is to compost it at home or turn it into a wildlife corner, though we appreciate that will not be possible for many people.

Garden Waste Service subscribers can leave their decoration-free tree out with their first collection of the year, so long as its smaller than 2 metres (or 6ft). The service will resume from Monday 8 January.

Trees will not be collected from the kerbside unless you subscribe to the Garden Waste Service.

Many charities, community organisations and groups are running tree collection or drop-off services, raising money for good causes. These include St Margarets Hospice and Dorothy House Hospice Care. Please check online for details.

Trees can also be taken to any of Somerset’s recycling sites and put it in the garden waste skip.

Recycling sites will be closed on Bank Holidays but will be open for their usual hours at other times, check online for details: www.somerset.gov.uk/waste.

Cllr Dixie Darch Executive Lead Member for Environment and Climate Change said:

“Although there’s festivities still to come, don’t forget to plan what to do with your tree following the seasonal celebrations.

“I’d encourage residents to think green and make sure that Christmas trees are sustainably disposed of, contributing to making Somerset a greener, more sustainable county”.

When it comes to the environmentally friendly choice, the Carbon Trust say that having a real tree rather than a plastic one is often better (depending on where and how it was grown). To even out the carbon used to produce a fake tree, it would need to be used for at least 10 years.

Plastic Christmas trees cannot be recycled. Consider giving unwanted fake trees to charity or offer them up on a reuse platform such as Freegle or Gumtree.

Any fake trees that have lost their Christmas cheer should be disposed of via the Energy from Waste skip at any of Somerset’s recycling sites. For more tips on how to reduce, reuse and recycle at this time of year visit: www.somerset.gov.uk/SeasonalWaste