Residents urged to 'TreeCycle' after festive season

Staffordshire County Council's sustainability team has taken the chance to remind residents about the different ways their real trees can be recycled responsibly.

This year, a number of charities and recycling centres will be taking in real Christmas trees to help reduce Christmas waste this year. 

The council has announced that charities such as St Giles, based in Lichfield, Katharine House Hospice, based in Stafford and Dougie Mac in Stoke-on-Trent, will be collecting trees for a small donation.

Collection locations include Lichfield, Walsall, Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Burton, Rugeley, Burntwood, Uttoxeter, Swadlincote, Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent. 

As well as responsibly reducing Christmas waste, the donations given will also go towards helping a number of hospices around the area. 

Simon Tagg, cabinet member with responsibility for climate change at Staffordshire County Council, said: "After Christmas we can often be left with a lot of waste to get rid of, including our real Christmas trees.

"But there are great initiatives right across the county to ensure we are donating our unwanted trees. I would urge people to do what they can to help keep Staffordshire sustainable and use any local schemes that reduce, reuse or recycle Christmas rubbish. 

"The county council has been championing the climate change agenda for a number of years now and has made a commitment to make Staffordshire more sustainable. 

"Ensuring Christmas trees and other waste is correctly recycled is just another way to help achieve this goal."

Real trees can also be taken to Staffordshire's Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) where the trees will then be placed into garden waste containers ready to be recycled. 

Further details on Staffordshire's HWRCs and how to book a tree collection with St Giles, Katharine House and Dougie Mac can be found on the TreeCycle website.