Press Release

RECYCLING YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE IS REALLY EASY IN CAMDEN

21 December 2006

Camden residents can give their discarded Christmas trees a new lease of life by using the council’s tree recycling scheme, which starts on 2 January 2007.

Each year, residents are recycling more and more of their Christmas trees – last year, around 10,000 were collected through the scheme, an increase on the 6,000 recycled in 2005.  This year, the council hopes that even more residents will dispose of their Christmas trees in this way, and that around 12,000 trees will be recycled. 

The Christmas trees recycled in Camden are turned into compost, which can be used to feed plants in gardens, green spaces and flowerpots across the borough for the rest of the year. 

Cllr Mike Greene, Executive Member for Environment, Camden Council said:

“Recycling in Camden is really easy for residents this Christmas with plenty of tree collection points across the borough. I hope everyone who has a real tree will bring it along and give gardeners a treat for the rest of the year with the compost it helps produce.”

Most of the million Christmas trees that are sold in London each year start life in forests in East Anglia.  Thousands of Camden residents buy the trees at nurseries, garden centres and shops in the borough to decorate and enjoy during the holidays.  Once the festivities are over, Camden residents can take their trees to any of the borough’s 23 recycling areas.

From there they will be collected and taken to the council’s recycling centre in Regis Road, where they will join hundreds of other trees on the green waste heap.  This will be taken to sites in Edmonton and Essex to be reduced down into compost. The compost is brought back to Regis Road where local residents can buy it for £2 per 40-litre bag. Completing the cycle, the compost created from all the Christmas trees collected in Camden can then be used on plants all over the borough all year round.

And, as well as recycling their Christmas tree, residents can also put Christmas cards and non-metallic wrapping paper into their doorstep recycling box, or into the paper bins at the estate and on street recycling points.  The Woodlands Trust also runs a national Christmas card recycling scheme with special bins in place at Tesco, TK Maxx and WHSmith stores from 2 to 31 January 2007.  

For any questions about Camden Christmas recycling see: www.camden.gov.uk/recycling or call 020 7974 6914.

For more information about The Woodlands Trust card recycling scheme see: www.recyclenow.com