Christmas tree recycling scheme raises £220K for hospice

The Farleigh Hospice Christmas tree collection scheme has raised more than £220,000 in eight years

A Christmas tree recycling scheme has raised more than £220,000 for an Essex hospice in eight years.

Volunteers have collected 15,000 trees in that time to raise money for Farleigh Hospice, which provides care across mid-Essex.

The charity costs £21,000 a day to run, with more than half of its funding coming from donations.

Fundraising manager Debbie de Boltz said the amount raised from the recycling scheme was "utterly amazing".

People can arrange for their tree to be collected from their doorstep, before it is taken away to be chipped.

This year, trees will be collected by volunteers between 5 and 7 January in exchange for donations to the hospice.

Chippings from the collected trees are turned into biomass fuel

The chippings are then collected for biomass fuel production or used on pathways in local cemeteries and parks.

"So far this year we have well over 1,000 people registered, so we're really pleased," Ms de Boltz said.

"In our first year we collected maybe 500 to 600 trees, so it has grown exponentially."

'Community engagement'

Ms de Boltz said people were also generous with their donations to the hospice, which costs £21,000 a day to run.

"Last year the collection raised close to £40,000, which is a phenomenal amount of money considering it's money for rubbish," she told the BBC.

About 50 different companies were involved in the three-day collection and chipping process.

"It's a truly wonderful community engagement project," says Ms de Boltz.

People can register for collection on the Farleigh Hospice website until 3 January.

Farleigh Hospice says only real trees can be collected, and people are advised to remove all decorations first.