Planning fir Christmas

It may only be November, but it’s never too early to plan what you will do with your real tree at the end of the Christmas season.

If you have a garden, the best option is to compost your tree at home. Use its branches to keep flower or veg beds frost free, or add the tree to your garden's wild corner to offer bugs and beasts shelter and food.

Every Somerset recycling site takes decoration-free trees for recycling into compost. If you’re a subscriber, you can leave your under-six-foot decoration-free tree with your first garden waste collection after usual services resume from Monday 8 January.

Visit our recycling centres webpage to find your nearest site including address, opening times and materials accepted.

Some garden centres or Christmas tree outlets may be offering tree chipping for free or a charity donation, while charities may be keen to receive trees for their activities.

Local charities we’ve heard that will collect your tree for a donation include:

• Dorothy House Hospice Care (information will be online from 15 November) and their volunteers will be collecting trees in the following postcodes:
  • BA1, BA2, BA3, BA4, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA15, SN11, SN12, SN13, SN14, SN15, SN16 and BS31 (The deadline for registering trees is midnight on Sunday 7 January 2024).

• St Margaret's Somerset Hospice will once again be collecting trees for a donation in the New Year. Check online for details soon.

We’ll be updating our website, with tips to reduce food waste, what can be recycled and how to use less this Christmas.