More than £19,000 has been for Garden House Hospice Care, thanks to Stevenage and North Herts residents going green when disposing of their Christmas trees.

For the fifth year running, a team of volunteers travelled across Stevenage, North Herts, South Bedfordshire and surrounding areas collecting Christmas trees to recycle in exchange for a donation to the hospice.

In total 1,075 trees were collected over a five-day period, with around £19,200 raised.

The Christmas trees were shredded by housing association settle, with chippings being donated to community projects.

Richard Harbon, head of events at Garden House Hospice Care, said: “Our Christmas Treecycling service has proved more popular than ever this year and we were delighted to have so many trees to collect.

"We thought exceeding last year’s total of 640 trees was challenging but achievable, so to have over 1,000 people sign up this year was outstanding.

“Not only will people’s kind donations really make a huge difference, but with so many people also giving permission to Gift Aid their donation by simply ticking a box, that equates to more than £3,500 in additional income which is fantastic.

"The service has also allowed people to help protect the environment by disposing of their trees in an environmentally friendly way.

“We’d like to take a moment to say a special thank you to all our volunteers, including the support of local companies such as settle, Branching Out, Ricky Cooper and John O’Conner Grounds Maintenance, without all of whom this excellent service just wouldn’t exist.”

Director of housing at settle Rachel McFarlane added: “We’re delighted to support Garden House Hospice Care with this service and help make a difference to the quality of lives of patients and their carers and families.

"We’re committed to working in a sustainable way across all that we do at settle. In line with this, the trees will provide eco-friendly chippings to projects, delivering benefits for our residents and communities.”

The treecycling service will return in 2023. Any individuals or companies interested in helping can register their early interest by emailing Richard Harbon on richard.harbon@ghhospicecare.org.uk.