Huddersfield’s two hospices will pick up real Christmas trees from homes and businesses in January and then transform them into something new.
Both The Kirkwood and the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice run the schemes to raise much-needed funds and also ensure old Christmas trees are disposed of in a sustainable way.
The two hospices have been supported by Kirklees Council which provides vans and staff for each charity to help with the collections, as well as chipping the trees so they’re ready for reuse.
Last year more than 3,500 Christmas trees were recycled in Kirklees, raising £48,000 for the charities. The trees collected were turned into wood chippings to be used as top dressings on soil in local parks, sports fields and farms while some were used as biomass for green heating.
A council spokesman said: “We’re delighted to be supporting our two Kirklees hospices for the sixth year running with their tree collection campaigns.
“This year we hope to collect and recycle even more which will result in fewer trees being inappropriately discarded or fly-tipped and valuable nutrients put back into the earth, not to mention considerable funds raised for two very important local hospices.”
Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice will be collecting trees across all of Kirklees and West Yorkshire.
In 2023 Forget Me Not’s volunteers collected 1,650 real Christmas trees from homes and businesses, raising vital funds for the charity which supports local children with life-shortening conditions and their families.
Forget Me Not’s fundraising manager Georgia Lane said: “Our tree collection service makes it easy to recycle your real Christmas tree once the festivities are over. All you have to do is place your order online and then you can relax, knowing it’s taken care of. Every penny raised will help us support local children and families.”
To arrange for your tree to be collected by the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice (minimum £10 donation) go to their website https://shop.forgetmenotchild.co.uk/product/xmas-tree-collections/
The Kirkwood will be collecting in most HD postcodes but not from HD6, HD7 6 and HD9 2.
You can support The Kirkwood and arrange for your tree to be collected by going to https://www.thekirkwood.org.uk/how-you-can-help/campaigns/treecycling
Registrations close at midnight on Sunday, January 7 with collections the following week.
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.
