A London company is offering customers a chance to rent a Christmas tree and return it in the new year to reduce the environmental damage of the festive celebrations.
Some seven million trees end up in landfill in the UK every year as households discard pines that can take up to 12 years to grow after just a few weeks.
To address the strain that puts on the environment, Jonathan Mearns and Catherine Loveless have come up with an innovative way of getting around it by offering Londoners the chance to rent their tree over a number of years rather than buy it.
London Christmas Tree Rental replants trees using an irrigation system that allows them to thrive for years before they get retired back to their original forests.
Loveless says there has been “clear demand” for the concept after starting up in 2018, saying they are not necessarily anti-cut trees, but just wanted to “give people an option and an alternative way to do Christmas trees.”
Customers can order a tree online to be picked up in December from one of the rental hubs dotted around London.
The company even encourages customers to name the tree, so it becomes part of the household.
The tree needs to be watered every day and preferably kept away from hot areas of the home. Once the rental period is over, the trees are collected in January and replanted.
“It goes back to the farm where it’s put into a special irrigation system, and then it’s cared for until the following year,” says Loveless.
What a genius idea!
Related: Passenger: The sustainable clothing brand that has planted a million trees
