A FESTIVE campaign is encouraging families to turn their Christmas trees into cash for a charity and help protect the environment.

St Luke's is once again collecting and recycling Christmas trees in return for donations to the hospice.

Registration for the annual Christmas tree collection is now open. Last year, a staggering 2,652 trees were collected in just four days, raising more than £27,000 in donations.

Andy Bailey, corporate partnerships manager for St Luke’s Hospice, said: “The Christmas tree collection is a fantastic fundraiser and really gets the new year off to a brilliant start for the hospice. It is now in it’s eighth year and each year the community’s generosity is overwhelming.

“I would urge everyone with a real tree to register nice and early to guarantee collection. By signing up before the new year, we can organise enough vans and volunteers so that we can pick up every tree in the area.

"It’s worth remembering that all trees are recycled and turned in to woodchips which are then used in local country parks, so the scheme is great for the environment too.’’

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St Luke’s runs the Christmas tree collection in conjunction with Just Helping. This year’s scheme has been kindly sponsored by Redrow Homes for the second year running.

Sarah Weaver, marketing manager for Redrow Homes (NW), said: “This is the second year we’ve sponsored the hospice’s Christmas tree collection service. We would encourage anyone within the collection area who’s having a real tree this year to arrange for it to be picked up by the hospice.

“It’s a great way to support the charity, while also helping the environment. At Redrow we’re committed to building responsibly and sustainably. For example, 99.9 per cent of the timber we use on site is responsibly sourced and credibly certified, plus we recycle over 95 per cent of our site waste across the country.”

Households across the CW1 to CW11 postcode district can register now to have their tree collected from Thursday, January 9 to Sunday, January 12, 2020 by visiting www.charityxmastreecollection.com