Over 1900 Christmas trees have been collected from households across the city of Portsmouth following the festive period, all going towards improving the rate of recycling in the city.
Residents were invited to leave their natural trees outside in front of their properties during a two-week period after Christmas and Portsmouth City Council collection crews took them away for recycling.
The way in which trees have been collected this year has saved about 70 tonnes of extra garden waste from the incinerator and repurposed it for future use in composting, all whilst offering local people a convenient disposal process.
Councillor Dave Ashmore, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, said: “We expect an increase in recycling and waste over the festive period and arrange for additional services accordingly, this includes the need for natural tree collections. We are pleased to be able to offer this service to our residents whilst contributing to our wider recycling goals across the city”.
What happens to your recycled Christmas tree?
Once your tree has been collected from outside your property, the collections crew takes it away ready for composting. There are two composting sites across Hampshire which have a combined capacity of 100,000 tonnes of green waste per year.
The trees contribute to the wider collection of raw materials including grass clippings and any organic matter from Portsmouth gardens. The raw material is then shredded and reduced and over a period of a few weeks, the material is fully composted for future reuse. Much of the compost goes for reuse as a soil conditioner rich in nutrients to provide an ideal growing medium for plants.