As businesses prepare this weekend to take down their office Christmas decorations, councils are urging firms to ensure their Christmas trees are disposed of in an environmentally friendly fashion.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association (LGA) said that businesses had a responsibility to use a council run or alternative recycling facility and ensure their office Christmas tree did not go to landfill.
Most councils in the UK are offering recycling services for trees, with many providing free drop points in city parks where the trees will go on to be mulched and reduced to wood chips. Local councils recommend these collection points for businesses and homes with most running until 31 January.
However, companies unable to drop off waste trees themselves will need to contact the trade waste department at their local council if they want their tree to be collected directly, a convenience which has a cost attached.
Roger Hay, secretary of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association, expressed disappointment that free collection services were not readily available, particularly given that just a fraction of the eight million Christmas trees sold in 2006 were recycled.
"It's extremely unfortunate there are no specific schemes for businesses," he said. "With biofuel and other uses for redundant Christmas trees on the up I'm surprised no one has taken the initiative."
However, the LGA insisted councils had to "balance the need to encourage recycling and the costs involved".
In related news, The Woodland Trust launched a Christmas card recycling scheme this week. The scheme will provide card recycling collection points in branches of Marks & Spencer, WH Smith, Tesco and TK Maxx until the end of the month. The Woodland Trust hopes to recycle 100 million cards through the initiative, enabling it to fund the planting of 24,000 trees.
Local Government Association insists just a "fraction" of material collected for recycling ends up in landfill 03 Mar 2008
Report claims "sustainable" bioplastics could lead to increased methane emissions if not recycled correctly 28 Apr 2008
Industry insiders claim eWaste recycling schemes are struggling and not enough is being done to promote re-use, but government insists directive remains on track 04 Jul 2008
UK exceeds IT kit disposal target but key procedures are not up to scratch 04 Jul 2008
New research finds that up to 40 per cent of packaging in household shopping basket cannot be recycled 23 Oct 2007
Report claiming solar panels take over 100 years to recoup their value is just plain wrong, say manufacturers 05 Sep 2008
New hybrid hatchback designed to make dual-drive vehicles more affordable 05 Sep 2008
Republican attempts to highlight differences over energy policy as both candidates pledge to deliver US energy independence 05 Sep 2008
More news
Once your company has gathered up all the low-hanging fruit, what comes next? Sarah Fister Gale finds that the answer lies in everything from multi-million dollar energy efficiency programmes to printers powered by exercise bikes 03 Sep 2008
Slow journey times mean airships are highly unlikely to replace passenger jets, but, as Danny Bradbury discovers, a flotilla of new companies are convinced that low-fuel costs mean the old-fashioned aircraft could have huge appeal to freight operators 02 Sep 2008
Recent claims from the oil giant's chief executive suggesting tar sand extraction is required to slow the shift to coal may have caught the eye, but as BusinessGreen.com discovers they do not make much sense 28 Aug 2008 More in-depth
Post your comment
Send an email to the Business Green editor at feedback@businessgreen.com
