Residents’ recycled Christmas trees help gardens grow

On Sunday 10 January, Dacorum residents recycled their Christmas trees for free at chipping points throughout the borough.

The annual recycling day, which has been running in Dacorum for 25 years, looked a little different this year with COVID measures in place, but in spite of that Dacorum Borough Council still recycled just under 1000 festive fir trees for residents.

There were chipping points set up at outdoor locations in Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring. The Berkhamsted location was changed to the Canal Fields car park to allow for better social distancing.

Normally the event is joined by the many Dacorum Scout groups that run tree collection services for residents. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic they were not able to do so this year. Along with lockdown restrictions, this did mean fewer trees came through to the chipping points than normal, however the Council still received almost 1000 trees for recycling.

Residents were asked to stay inside their cars and wear masks at all times while crews unloaded the trees for them. Despite all the safety measures in place, everyone was in good spirits and residents enjoyed watching the trees being chipped from their cars.

Almost all the Christmas trees were passed through the chipper and the chippings were available for residents to take away and reuse in their gardens as a weed preventative. The remaining chippings will be recycled into compost ready to eventually be returned to the soil to help new plants to grow.

The crews received several evergreen trees that were still alive and potted in soil with the roots intact. These trees were not chipped and were instead kept aside for re-planting. The Council is encouraging anyone who has a Christmas tree that is still alive and has roots to either keep it in your garden to reuse next year, or offer it to someone else who will be able to give it a good home.

This year, why not make an eco-friendly resolution to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ as much as you can? Dacorum Borough Council’s Green 2021 page is full of useful hints and tips to help you develop some habits that are better for the environment: www.dacorum.gov.uk/green2021

If you missed the Christmas tree chipping day, you can still recycle your real Christmas tree at the Household Waste Recycling Centres in Eastman Way in Hemel Hempstead or in Northbridge Road in Berkhamsted.

Trees must not be left at any of the borough’s other recycling sites as this will be treated as fly-tipping. Alternatively, you can cut up your tree and store it in your green bin ready for garden waste collections to begin again in the spring. If you require an extra green bin, you can find out more about the subscriptions on the Council’s website: www.dacorum.gov.uk/extragreenbin

For more information and advice about recycling visit: www.dacorum.gov.uk/recycling