Christmas Tree Collection & Recycling

From Friday 17 January 2025, and for a busy few days afterwards, a small army of Wirral Hospice St John’s volunteers, eager to work off their festive feasting, will be buzzing all around Wirral picking up used REAL Christmas trees from outside people’s homes and businesses.

Wirral postcodes we collect from:
CH41, CH42, CH43, CH44, CH45, CH46, CH47, CH48, CH49, CH60, CH61, CH62, CH63, CH64

Please see this map of other charity Christmas tree collections, if you are from OUTSIDE of the above postcode areas (map created by East Cheshire Hospice).

We are kindly asking for donations in exchange for collecting trees:

Suggested donation per tree:
£10 4ft
£15 5ft
£20 6ft
£25 7ft
£30 8ft+

Examples of what your donations help with:
£10 = contributes towards food for one patient for a day
£15 = contributes towards specialist palliative nursing care
£20 = contributes towards physiotherapy for a patient
£25 = contributes towards bereavement support for loved ones
£30 = contributes towards hospice at home support visits

On the days of the collections around thirty large vans, many of which have been lent to the hospice, are sent everywhere around Wirral. One person will take the wheel and navigate a pre-planned postcode route, while one or two crew members, will pick up the tree from each address and load it onto the back of the van.

Once each van is fully loaded it’s driven to various pre-arranged temporary ‘drop-sites’ around Wirral to offload for chipping, then it’s back on the road heading out for the next load. The chipped trees have further recycled uses, maybe in biofuel or even spread around at community farms and paddocks. Other small local charities also receive around ten per cent of the monies raised.

All the people who give their valuable time are well fed and watered while fuel costs are offered to everyone who volunteers the use of their van(s).

Elaine Connell, Wirral Hospice St John’s fundraising officer, says:

“People from all over Wirral really get behind our Christmas tree collection campaign. We know it’s a lot of fun for our hardy volunteers who come back year after year. We’re extremely grateful to everyone who supports Wirral Hospice St John’s, including all those who give up their valuable time and the use of their vehicles to help with the collections and, of course, all those people who make their generous donations for us to pick up their used real Christmas trees.

We’re also very grateful to those organisations who lend a hand, equipment or valuable drop-off space.”