Witney News - Christmas tree recycling

Christmas tree recycling

Residents in West Oxfordshire are being encouraged to put out their real Christmas trees for recycling as part of garden waste collections from next Monday, 17 January.

Householders simply need to put their Christmas tree in their garden waste bin or leave it at the kerbside alongside their food waste bins and recycling boxes on their green collection day.

Garden waste collections are carried out fortnightly on alternate weeks to household rubbish collections. People can check for their next garden waste collection on their waste and recycling calendar, or by looking online at the My West Oxfordshire section of the District Council’s website www.westoxon.gov.uk

Residents do not need to be signed up for the Council’s optional garden waste service to put out their Christmas tree for collection.

Cllr David Harvey, Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “In previous years, we have run chipping sessions at a few locations in the district for people to bring their tree to, but this year we are able to give all residents the chance to have their tree collected free for recycling from right outside their homes.

“We are able to do this as part of the new waste and recycling service introduced at the end of last year and would like to encourage residents to take advantage of it. As well as being convenient for them, it will help to ensure that more trees are recycled.”

All collected trees will be turned into compost along with other garden waste collected in West Oxfordshire. Residents are asked to remove all decorations and wire from their trees before putting them out for collection.

The new waste and recycling service was introduced at the end of November 2010 and includes weekly food waste recycling, weekly black box recycling, free fortnightly garden waste recycling collections for all households that have signed up, and fortnightly non-recyclable household rubbish collections.

Garden waste collections have been on hold during the busy festive period to enable household rubbish to be collected weekly. Bin collections have also been operating to a Bank Holiday schedule, which can be checked online at www.westoxon.gov.uk/holidaycollections.

All waste and recycling services are due to return to the normal schedule from 17 January.

For more information about waste and recycling visit www.westoxon.gov.uk/waste or call 01993 861025