Woodland Trust celebrates as 40 million Christmas cards recycled

Supported by waste firm Cleanaway and the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers, the scheme has seen card banks placed in 553 high street branches of WH Smith and 730 Tesco stores.

Michael Meacher with pupils from Raglan Primary School, who collected 8,000 Christmas cards this year

Revenue from paper and card sold to SCA Recycling and Severnside Recycling has gone towards conservation projects carried out by the Woodland Trust.

At an event in Westminster yesterday, which celebrated the 17% increase in cards collected compared to last year, the minister congratulated the supporting organisations, which also included the Royal Mail and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, two companies that promoted the scheme internally.

Mr Meacher said: “I am delighted that the Christmas card recycling scheme goes from strength to strength, and I think the success of this year's scheme – in collecting a phenomenal 787 tonnes – is appropriate recognition of the public's efforts to do their bit for the environment.”

Imperative
Thanking the public for their support, the minister said that it was “imperative” that environmental awareness continued to grow. He was also pleased that the scheme would continue in 2004, with WH Smith already on board.

Mr Meacher added: “Abolishing Christmas might be a very good way to start the government's waste minimisation programme!”

Next year's scheme will operate from January 5 to February 1 2004. Leann Llewellyn, corporate social responsibility manager for WH Smith said that they were keen to get involved again.

She told letsrecycle.com: “Customers love the scheme, which is why it wasn't a difficult decision to continue to support it.”

Ms Llewellyn said that there were only two difficulties for staff operating the schemes emptying the banks and making sure that no plastic carrier bags were contained within the material.

As well as the Christmas card scheme, WH Smith runs a free inkjet cartridge recycling service for customers, who simply place used printer cartridges into freepost envelopes and send them through the mail to be recycled. Revenue from the service goes to the World Wildlife Fund.

The chain is also carrying out packaging waste collection trials with Biffa Waste Services in 20 of its London stores, with the intention of expanding the service if it is successful, Ms Llewellyn said.