Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice’s Christmas tree recycling campaign raises more than £48,000 for the charity
Bluebell Wood has thanked everyone who has supported its most recent ‘Recycle your Christmas Tree’ service, helping families declutter at the end of the festivities with an environmentally friendly way of disposing of their Christmas tree.
At E.ON, we’re proud to have supported this initiative as part of our commitment to supporting the communities around our Blackburn Meadows biomass plant in Sheffield.
This year’s 'Recycle your Christmas Tree' service raised an incredible £48,018 for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice with a total of 2,069 trees collected - making this the Christmas tree campaign’s highest-ever amount raised since it began in 2021.
Heidi Hawkins, Chief Executive at Bluebell Wood, said: “We are thrilled with the fantastic response to our Christmas tree campaign. The support from the public has been amazing, with so many people playing an important part in helping us to provide a more sustainable way to process Christmas trees after the festive period.
“Our wonderful staff and volunteers have given more time than ever this year, allowing us to collect more trees from across the community and achieve record income, and we’ve also had the support of more than 70 organisations, from recycling partners to tree collectors, drivers and organisations that helped us spread the word.”
E.ON is one of the organisations that supported Bluebell Wood with the campaign, helping to ensure that 100% of the trees collected are recycled or repurposed. The trees have either been processed at our Blackburn Meadows plant to power South Yorkshire homes or turned into sustainable biomass fuel. Some trees are also being donated to be used in local forest schools around Doncaster and the surrounding areas.
Heidi said: “Our heartfelt thanks to our partners, the volunteers, and the organisations who support our Christmas tree collection. They all do such a superb job, and we simply would not be able to run the campaign without their expertise and assistance. This is a community-led service that continues to show just what can be done when people with a shared goal come together to support others.”
Jess Dhariwal, Plant Manager at E.ON’s Blackburn Meadows biomass energy plant, said: “We couldn’t be more pleased that Bluebell Wood has raised so much money through this fantastic initiative. At Blackburn Meadows, we’re pleased to be able to support our local communities, and this particular scheme brings together our sustainability goals and care for the community beautifully. A massive thank you and well done to everyone involved in making this campaign such a huge success for this incredibly worthwhile charity.”
About Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice
Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice aims to create a home from home, caring for children and young adults whose lives are sadly just too short and supporting families facing the hardest of times. The hospice opened in 2008 and has supported hundreds of children and families from across South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire, North Nottinghamshire and parts of North Lincolnshire.
About Blackburn Meadows
E.ON’s Sheffield-based biomass-fuelled combined heat and power plant, Blackburn Meadows, has been operational since 2015. It uses recycled waste wood sourced from within the UK to generate 30MW of electrical energy and up to 25MW of thermal energy. This plant powers up to 69,000 homes and businesses in the South Yorkshire region.