Recycle your Christmas tree with Francis House Children's Hospice

The event provides an easy and convenient way for people to donate to their local community.

In an exciting new partnership with JustHelping you can recycle your Christmas tree and support a worthy cause.

Francis House Children’s Hospice will be collecting and recycling Christmas trees in partnership with national charity JustHelping and St Ann’s Hospice. 

Anyone living in Manchester, Stockport, Trafford and Salford can register their Christmas tree for collection up until midnight on January 7.

The trees will then be collected between Thursday, January 11 and Sunday, January 14 by a team of volunteers and recycled at Wythenshawe Park where the chippings will be used in local parks.

For the last ten years, JustHelping and St Ann’s Hospice have run the popular collections which last year raised almost £65,000 for local charities from the collection of 5,000 trees.

With the expansion of the scheme into even more postcode areas, JustHelping invited Francis House Children’s Hospice to join the campaign and the charity is hoping to benefit from the donations made to collect the trees.

Kate Puć, fundraising officer at Francis House Children’s Hospice said: “We're absolutely delighted to be on board this year with the Christmas tree collection and thank JustHelping for asking us to be a part of this campaign. We hope many of our supporters will ask for their tree to be recycled and help raise much needed, vital funding for their local children’s hospice.

“We support families from all the areas participating in the scheme. Every bit of support and each donation helps keep the doors of Francis House open. We're also reaching out to our supporters to help with the collections and for anyone with a van to come forward with offers of help.”

JustHelping supports volunteers, businesses and charities to contribute to their community and the environment. The national Christmas tree collection raises essential funds for hospices and communities through the income raised from donations.

Tom Laverty, development manager at JustHelping said: “JustHelping are delighted to welcome Francis House to the MCR Christmas Tree Collection. The event provides an easy and convenient way for people to donate to their local community and we are excited to be offering more households the opportunity to support both children and adult hospices in Greater Manchester.”

Based in Didsbury, Francis House provides a home from home where the families of children with life-limiting conditions receive professional care, support and friendship. Services include respite care, day care, homecare, sibling support groups, end of life care and symptom control, and emotional support and bereavement support.

Kate said: “Register your tree before the 7th of January to make sure you secure your slot and enjoy your Christmas knowing that you won’t be queuing at the recycling centre to dispose of your tree in the New Year!”

Anyone wishing to find out more about the scheme or to book a collection can visit https://just-helping.org.uk/register-tree

http://www.francishouse.org.uk

Please note that the scheme is also available in other parts of the UK to support other good causes that are local to you.

(Image courtesy of Oleksandr Pidvalnyi of Pixabay)

Tesco join forces with Hasbro and Wastebuster to trial in store toy recycling that also gets books into schools

Tesco has become the latest member of Wastebuster’s Recycle to Read toy recycling initiative, which is designed to educate and promote toy reuse and create a new infrastructure for the recycling of plastic toys.

Recycle to Read collection bins will be trialled in selected Tesco stores from this week.

Customers can deposit broken plastic toys in-store for recycling and at the same time collect points for books.

The initiative is backed by global toy and games company Hasbro, alongside the founding partners of Recycle to Read, children’s magazine publishers.

Tesco and Hasbro have combined forces with top not-for-profit environmental education company, Wastebuster, to test out a new in-store campaign, which aims at turning broken plastic toys into books and reading resources for schools in the UK.

In an important development for the Recycle to Read campaign, the trial, which will run from now until December 4th,  will encourage children and families to recycle their broken, hard plastic toys via toy recycling bins placed in a number of specially chosen Tesco stores. If the scheme proves itself  to be a hit with parents and children, it will then be rolled out to further stores.

Backed by global toy and games company, Hasbro, the initiative aims to drive a circular solution for unwanted or broken hard plastic toys. Families are first encouraged to rehome toys through charitable giving to friends, family, school toy sales or local charities. Broken toys can be recycled in store, where they are collected, cleaned and turned into plastic pellets, before being used to create new items including coat hangers, chairs and coffee machines. 

Rehomed and recycled plastic toys can be registered via the Wastebuster website to earn Planet Care Points for any schools attended by children from 2-11 years old in the Sussex area. Eligible schools can register for free to earn points for books at www.jointhepod.org/toys,

The Recycle to Read scheme will then reward the fifty highest point-scoring schools in the area with book vouchers from a prize fund of £5,000, to spend on a wide range of discounted books by children’s publishing house, Harper Collins. Participating schools could also win fantastic book bundles, provided by publishing houses Farshore and Ladybird, in a special weekly prize draw. 

The Recycle to Read campaign was launched by Wastebuster in association with Products of Change and is powered by members of the toy industry and all major children’s publishers and distributors,  including Immediate Media Company; Story House Egmont; Redan; Kennedy; Signature; DC Thompson; Frontline and Seymour. The campaign aim is to drive new infrastructure for notoriously hard-to-recycle plastic toys, plus providing reading materials to support literacy in UK nurseries and primary schools across the UK.

Katy Newnham, who is the founder of Wastebuster said: “Recycle to Read supports families in learning about the environmental benefits of toy rehoming and recycling, while rewarding them with books for taking part. 

"What better way can we inspire and empower children to make pro-environmental choices, than by storytelling with their favourite characters and giving them an opportunity to send their unwanted toys on a new adventure that is good for the planet?”

Helena Mansell-Stopher, who is the founder of Products of Change said: “The Recycle to Read platform is the result of the tireless work of an industry coming together with cross-sector stakeholders around the need to find more sustainable solution for unwanted or broken toys.

"After so many years in the making, it’s amazing to see the campaign come to life via this Hasbro and Tesco partnership. This is a really hugely exciting moment that I believe represents a turning point for circularity in toys, and a wonderful example of what can be achieved when industry demonstrates sector leadership and comes together, in the pursuit of sustainability”.

Ally Rose, who is the Tesco Category Director for Toys said: “We are always looking for new ways to remove, reduce, reuse and recycle plastic in our business, so we’re really delighted to be able to support the Recycle to Read campaign as a way to help our customers do more of this at home. As well as trialling a new way we can work together on hard-to-recycle plastics, it also helps to give children greater access to reading”.

Sara Westby, Director of Marketing at Hasbro, added: “At Hasbro, we know kids and families everywhere share our passion for protecting our planet, which is why we’re so proud to partner with Wastebuster on the Recycle to Read campaign. We encourage everyone to keep their memories, but recycle their broken toys – doing good to the planet and to people”. 

For more information on Recycle to Read, visit:https://www.recycletoread.org or contact Katy@wastebuster.co.uk.

That's Christmas believe this scheme is a fantastic idea for the pre-Christmas period.

Odd Bins says recycle your bottles. With a difference!

Recycling their empty bottles has proved very productive for these lucky people, echoing the New Year saying ‘out with the old and in with the new.’

They were caught by surprise in Central London and were handed a full bottle of Oddbins Errazuriz Cabernet Sauvignon in return for their empties.

The high street off licence plans to place the bins around the country later in the year to encourage people to recycle their unwanted bottles.

Oddbins relaunched across the country two months ago with a diverse range of wines and a closer connection to the customer.

Simon Mason, Head of Commercial at Oddbins, said: “These are the odd bins that just keep on giving! We wanted to bring in a bit of Christmas cheer and try to find a fun way to encourage people to recycle - and you can tell by the reaction of the people in the video that it worked.

"I have to say that if you pop into one of our stores across the country the only surprise you will get is the wide range of wines we have and the great prices. I promise no one will jump out at you. If only the banks worked this way."