Christmas sees the demise of millions of pine trees in the UK – but one company in London has decided to offer a nature-friendly alternative.
Jonathan Mearns and Catherine Loveless were sick of seeing the streets of London turn into a Christmas tree graveyard every year, so decided to do something about it.
The average Christmas tree takes 10 to 12 years to grow and seven million of them end up in landfill each year. All for the sake of three weeks of celebration. To tackle this issue, Jonathan and Catherine have founded London Christmas Tree Rental, offering their customers the opportunity to rent their trees – even the same one year after year.
“We’re only three years old, so we’re still really young,” says Loveless. “We’re still learning all the time and trying to improve on elements. When we did our pilot year, we just had, say, 50 trees and we just tested the water. It was instantly clear to realise – okay, people really like the concept of renting their own tree.”
“It’s not that we’re anti cut trees and grown trees always going to have limitations because you’re never going to get it really growing above seven foot [2.1 metres],” says Loveless. “We 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. 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. The company offers child-sized living Christmas trees too, which are about 50cm. 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.
Watch the video above to learn more about eco-friendly Christmas trees.
