{"id":212875,"date":"2026-01-02T08:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212875\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T08:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:36:18","slug":"how-to-recycle-christmas-trees-in-the-south-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212875\/","title":{"rendered":"How to recycle Christmas trees in the South"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcus WhiteSouth of England<\/p>\n

\"IsleIsle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary<\/p>\n

Donkeys enjoy clean, chemical-free Christmas trees<\/p>\n

With the turn of the year, it could be time to take down your Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, Twelfth Night on Monday 5 or Tuesday 6 January is the occasion to dismantle the skeletal remains of real trees, sweep up the sea of needles and restore furniture to its rightful place in the living room.<\/p>\n

People in Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire have a wide range of disposal options.<\/p>\n

You can feed a tree to an alpaca, turn it into a trendy dead hedge, or have a charity collect it from your door. Councils also offer services, but these vary widely according to your location.<\/p>\n

Feed it to an alpaca (or similar)<\/p>\n

\"BridgeBridge End Alpacas<\/p>\n

You can also make alpacas happy with a Christmas tree treat<\/p>\n

Some farms and animal shelters are grateful for real Christmas trees.<\/p>\n

Goats, donkeys and alpacas are among animals which like to nibble at spruces and firs.<\/p>\n

Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary<\/a>, Berkshire Animal Connection Centre<\/a> and Bridge End Alpacas near Andover<\/a> are among sites that welcome chemical-free, undecorated trees.<\/p>\n

If you have no animals at hand, you could even consider eating your tree yourself.<\/p>\n

The internet is full of recipes such as pine pesto and spruce tip syrup.<\/p>\n

However, non-organic trees may have been treated with chemicals, and yew is poisonous so should never be consumed.<\/p>\n

Make a trendy dead hedge<\/p>\n

\"ScampstonScampston Hall<\/p>\n

Dead hedges are wildlife-friendly and increasingly popular<\/p>\n

Dead hedges are “soaring in popularity”, according to the Royal Horticultural Society<\/a> (RHS).<\/p>\n

Vertical posts can be packed with Christmas tree trimmings as filler and you can even ask your neighbours for more branches.<\/p>\n

Other home options include leaving the tree to rot away, which can take a year or two if the trunk is cut into small pieces.<\/p>\n

Trees with roots can sometimes be planted and used next year.<\/p>\n

However, Christmas trees should not be burned in the home.<\/p>\n

The sap and needles burn quickly and may cause a chimney fire or damage wood burners, according to Dorset Master Sweep, a chimney sweep guild member.<\/p>\n

Have a charity come round<\/p>\n

\"RingwoodRingwood Round Table<\/p>\n

Some charities and Round Table groups will collect from your door<\/p>\n

Not all councils are the same<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Forest District Council<\/p>\n

Some councils offer drop-off points<\/p>\n

Tidings of great joy if you live in Cherwell, Fareham, Gosport, Portsmouth, Rushmoor or Winchester – those councils will collect your tree for free from your home, even if you do not subscribe to the garden waste service.<\/p>\n

However, dates vary and so do conditions – for example, you may have to register for collection or cut the tree into pieces – so it is best to check the council website for details.<\/p>\n

Many councils set up temporary drop-off points for trees in January.<\/p>\n

These include Basingstoke and Deane, Hart, New Forest, Oxford, Reading, South Oxfordshire, Test Valley, Vale of White Horse, West Oxfordshire and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.<\/p>\n

For the rest, it will have to be a trip to the household waste and recycling centre.<\/p>\n

Or you can have the tree collected if you subscribe to the council’s garden waste service and you have chopped it apart – check sites for details again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus WhiteSouth of England Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary Donkeys enjoy clean, chemical-free Christmas trees With the turn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-212875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}