Thousands of Christmas trees to be recycled into compost  (posted 09/01/2009)

Thousands of Christmas trees are to be turned into top quality garden compost by a Dorset company.

Environment chiefs at Bournemouth Borough Council hope to top the 14 tonnes of trees recycled by Parley-based Eco Sustainable Solutions last year.

The trees are to be collected from households between Monday January 12 and Friday January 23.

They are transported to Eco’s 14-acre site to be fed into a giant shredder before joining other garden waste to undergo the lengthy natural composting process which lasts approximately three months.

After screening and grading the resultant compost is bagged up and sold back to members of the public, garden centres and other customers.

Cllr Robert Lawton, Bournemouth Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Transport and the Environment, saw the process for himself when he visited Eco.

“This is the third year we’ve recycled Christmas trees in the borough and we have high hopes that it will be our most successful. It makes great sense,” Cllr Lawton said.

Justin Dampney, Eco’s Business and Marketing Manager, said: “There really is no greener way of disposing of Christmas trees, returning goodness and nutrients back into the soil. It’s a ‘win-win’ for everyone.”

ENDS

Picture caption: Green solution: Cllr Robert Lawton (right) and Eco’s Justin Dampney prepare for the first batch of Christmas trees to be shredded.

Editor’s Note: Founded in 1994, Eco Sustainable Solutions is one of the UK’s leading organics recycling firms, annually processing 160,000 tonnes of material on its 14-acre site at Parley, Dorset. End products include turf, enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip. Eco was named KPMG Dorset Company of the Year in November 2008.

For more information please contact: Justin Dampney, Business and Marketing Manager, Eco Sustainable Solutions, on 01202 593601 or Andrew Diprose, PR Account Director, Deep South Media on 01202 534487.