Charities urge people to sign up for 'treecycling'

Charities are offering Christmas tree recycling services to help households empty their living rooms now January has arrived.

Sue Ryder and Longfield Community Hospice are two charities offering "treecycling" services in Gloucestershire, while raising money for their hospice services.

Alysia Cameron-Price from Sue Ryder said wood chips from the trees are used at Leckhampton Court Hospice's gardens.

Longfield hopes to raise more than £72,000 to help fund 1,300 hours of "hospice at home care, wellbeing, bereavement and counselling services".

Ms Cameron-Price said the Sue Ryder initiative is in its seventh year, and was started by a tree surgeon who wanted to raise money for the hospice.

"It started off really, really small, and now we are collecting over 1,000 trees," she said, adding that more than £26,000 was raised for Sue Ryder through treecycling last year.

"People want a real tree... but then you'll often see trees on the side of the road or in someone's garden because they don't know what to do with it.

"This is a really nice way for people to know they're supporting the hospice, but also the chippings are going to be reused.

"Whether that's going into biomass for green energy or if it's being used back in the hospice garden or for playgrounds, the whole lifecycle of the tree is really nice."

Longfield Hospice is looking for volunteers and vans to help collect and chip Christmas trees.

An "army of volunteers" collected 3,742 trees over four days from households throughout Gloucestershire, the charity said.

Kirsty Murray, Longfield's fundraising manager, said: "It's a convenient and charitable way of disposing of your tree sustainably and ensuring it doesn't end up in landfill."

The trees collected by Longfield are taken to two recycling sites offered by Gloucestershire County Council, including Painswick Rococo Garden, where they are chipped into mulch and reused locally, including at the garden.

Longfield will be collecting from areas with the following postcodes: GL2 2, GL2 3, GL2 4, GL2 5, GL2 6, GL2 7, GL3 4, GL3 9, GL4, GL5, GL6, GL7 GL8 GL10, GL11, GL12, and GL13.

Residents have until 7 January to register their tree for collection by Longfield.

Meanwhile, Sue Ryder will collect from GL2 0, GL2 8, GL2 9, GL3 1, GL3 2, GL20 5, GL20 6, GL20 7, GL20 8, GL50, GL51, GL52, GL53, GL54 1, GL54 2, GL54 4, GL54 5, GL55 6, and GL56 0 postcodes.

People living in these postcodes must register for Sue Ryder treecycling before midnight on 8 January.

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