Boris wants your old Christmas tree

Is there a Christmas Tree sitting in the foyer of your company's London Office? If so, Boris Johnson wants to get his hands on it.

The London Mayor has today called on business households to ensure their Christmas trees are properly recycled, arguing that each year an estimated 35 tonnes of old conifers are thrown away across the capital leading to increased landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking as the 20-metre tree in Trafalgar Square was put through an industrial chipping machine and taken away to be turned into fertiliser, Johnson said that Londoners should try and ensure their trees are disposed of responsibly.

"The Trafalgar Square tree is the mother of all Christmas trees, so it is right that we take the lead in disposing of it in an eco-friendly way," he said. "I call on Londoners to bestow a last act of kindness to the forest of trees that have given so much pleasure in our sitting rooms, and ensure they are recycled to have a more fruitful future than being cruelly tossed away."

The Mayor's Office said that all of London's 33 boroughs now offer tree-recycling services, while 27 are offering a collection-from-home service and 26 are opening special drop off points where trees can be collected for recycling.

The new tree-recycling services are the final part of a wider campaign to curb festive waste and promote recycling across the holiday period.

According to the Mayor's Office, over 124 million Christmas cards have also been used by Londoners, while the last two weeks saw the amount of glass jars and bottles consumed rise by around 30 per cent on normal levels.