Charity offers tree recycling service to help raise funds

Katharine House Hospice from Stafford has teamed up with waste management services Veolia and UK charity Just Helping to offer a hassle-free Christmas tree collection.

The money raised from donations go towards providing free care of people with complex, progressive illnesses from diagnosis to the end of life as well as support for their families.

Supporters can donate and register their tree at just-helping.org.uk/register-tree by midnight on Thursday, January 4.

Trees will then be collected directly from each property in the week of January 8 to be recycled.

Once collected, the trees are taken to Mill Farm Recycling near Eccleshall where they are shredded and eventually recycled into a quality peat free compost which is then used by a variety of customers including landscapers, farmers and national bagging companies to supply garden centres and DIY stores.

Lyndsey Howard, fundraising coordinator, said: “Mill Farm is a family run business who have been in the agricultural industry since 1945.

“As well as supporting our care, it was great to see our trees being turned into peat free compost instead of ending up in landfill, which is costly to both the environment and the UK taxpayer.”

Last year, almost 1,000 trees were collected, over 200 more than the previous year, raising £12,000.

Collections will be made from the following postcodes ST14, ST15, ST16, ST17, ST18, ST19, ST20, ST21, WS11, WS12 and WS15 and are for real trees only with no pots and all decorations removed.