Where do all the Christmas trees go?

By Trash Talk on Jan 3, 08 09:10 AM

By the time you read this over 6 million real Christmas trees will have been bought in the UK, that is about nine thousand tonnes of trees.

Once they are taken down, where do they all go?

Only 750,000 of the real trees sold in 2006 were recycled, most go to landfill unless you take action to prevent it.

Give your council a ring or check their website to see how you can recycle your tree. Most take trees into their Household Waste Recycling Centres.

In 2007 Premier Waste took in over 350 tonnes of Christmas trees from various local authorities in the region. These were then chipped down and added to other green waste (from household collections, garden and park clippings) to make compost - the trees cannot be composted on their own as they are too acidic. The standard we work to is called PAS 100:2005. This is the British Standard Institution’s specification for composted material. Making compost this way is 100% natural and recycled. There is huge demand for green waste compost made to this standard - not only from local authorties and allotment holders but also from farmers who can use it instead of chemical fertilisers.

Happy Recycling.

http://www.wrap.org.uk/composting/production/index.html