Christmas is well and truly over. The decorations are down, the awkward family gatherings are no more, this of course means having to take those trees we bring inside – back outside! But what life is left for these trees when the festive season comes to an end? They’ve served their purpose once again for the few weeks their needed but now, the pavements of Cheltenham are now lined with these limp, sad, lifeless, once glowing main features of a room.
The British Christmas Tree Growers Association estimates we purchase between 6-8 million real Christmas trees every year in the UK. So clearly there are still many of us who will go through the hassle of sweeping up the endless needles for weeks! Some of these trees will be left to rot on landfill sites, others shredded up and given a new lease of life as compost. On their website Cheltenham Borough Council advises to either take your tree to Swindon Road Recycling Centre or Christmas trees will be collected from the 8th of January for two weeks.
Now more than ever people fear running the risk of living wastefully. With this in mind should we consider trying to keep our trees alive to re-use the following year? Gardening expert Sarah Raven, told the Telegraph it is possible to do this, if when purchasing your tree look into the detail and be sure to look for trees labelled as pot-grown, potted tree or root-balled tree.
