A huge 50 tonnes of Christmas trees have been collected by Hammersmith & Fulham Council during January.

The council invited residents to recycle their Christmas trees by putting them out on the pavement on the same day as their refuse and recycling.

And the result was that the council's waste management contractor, Serco, picked up over 2,500 trees from the kerbside as residents took advantage of the free initiative.

The tree, once collected, have been taken to a recycling facility in Hampshire to be composed rather then taken to landfill.

Cllr Greg Smith, cabinet member for residents' services, says: "I would like to thank all residents who recycled their Christmas tree. It currently costs the council £107 to send a tonne of waste to landfill and that figure is set to rise by 20 per cent later this year.

"As you can imagine collecting thousands of trees during the days after Christmas is quite a large logistical operation and due to the popularity of the service this year we have never had so many trees to collect. I would like to thank residents for bearing with us if they had to wait a day or two for their tree to be picked up and am sure that they can appreciate what a large operation Christmas tree collection is for the council."

January 24, 2011