Christchurch-based recycling company, Eco Sustainable Solutions is partnering with Diverse Abilities, Julia’s House, and Lewis-Manning Hospice Care to turn hundreds of real Christmas trees into compost to raise funds for the three charities.

Read on to find out the collection dates and how to book a collection.

Eco’s managing director, Justin Dampney, highlights the programme’s success: “We’ve been offering this service to charities for years, with growing participation,” he said. “We recycle trees into compost and woodchip, benefiting our community’s green spaces while supporting these incredible charities.”

Diverse Abilities, the only charity that supports children and adults with profound physical and learning disabilities, and their families in Dorset, collected 2,001 trees last year, raising over £22,000.

Helen Mortimer, head of fundraising at Diverse Abilities, commented: “Christmas treecycling is a fabulous way to get involved with helping to raise vital funds for Diverse Abilities. For a suggested £10 donation, our army of volunteers will take to the roads between 5 and 8 January and dispose of your tree responsibly with Eco.

“The funds raised this year will help to provide all sorts of activities for children and adults with physical and learning disabilities across the county and beyond, as well as providing practical and mental health support for their families.”

Julia’s House, an award-winning hospice charity, which cares for the families of children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, recycled 630 Christmas trees last year, raising more than £7,000. This year, collections will be between 11 and 13 January from homes throughout Dorset and Wiltshire and the team is hoping to beat last year and recycle 800 trees.

Charlie Squires, from Julia’s House fundraising team, commented: “We’re delighted to be running our charity Christmas tree collection again this year and so thankful for all our amazing volunteers who are getting involved in helping to collect all the trees. Not only is this a great way of disposing of your tree, but any donations made to Julia’s House children’s hospice will make a vital difference in helping us to care for local seriously ill children and their families.”

The third charity teaming up with Eco this Christmas is Lewis-Manning Hospice Care, a charity helping people with life-limiting illnesses and their families across East Dorset.

For a suggested £15 donation which could provide two patients with a Christmas dinner and help Lewis-Manning to continue delivering vital services to local people, the team will come to collect your trees between 11, 12 and 13 January from postcodes across the BH1-BH23 area.

Fundraising manager, Vicki Gray said: “Thank you so much to all the team at Eco Sustainable Solutions for supporting Lewis-Manning Hospice Care’s Christmas Tree Collection and Recycling Campaign for yet another year in 2024.

“This will be the sixth year that our charity has been offering the successful and popular service in our community and the fourth year that Eco has generously supported us.

“This has become our biggest community fundraising campaign and in 2023 we collected over 600 trees and generated over £9,000 of donations, which as you can imagine, has a huge impact on the care and support we can continue to provide to local people and their families, living with a life-limiting condition.”

Justin said: “We’ve been a part of the community for over 30 years and are proud to support these incredible organisations, giving help and support to those that need it.”

How to book a collection:

Lewis-Manning  https://lewis-manning.org.uk/christmas-tree-collection/

Diverse Abilities www.diverseabilities.org.uk/trees

Julia’s House https://www.juliashouse.org/how-you-can-help/christmas-tree-collection-recycling

Another local charity, Dorset Mind, will also be collecting Christmas trees for recycling on 4 and 5 January from households in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole for a minimum donation of £10. These can be booked at https://dorsetmind.uk/christmas-tree-collection