There’s no curbside pickup of Christmas trees in London next month, but volunteers will come get yours for a $10 donation to the London Food Bank.
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Rather than picking up trees through the household garbage collection system, city hall is instead directing Londoners to take their used trees to one of the city’s environmental deposits or hang onto it until the spring, if it’s three meters or shorter, for disposal during seasonal yard -waste pickup.
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But there’s another option that doesn’t require you to go anywhere, or stash your tree in the backyard until spring, and the food bank benefits at the same time.
Eddy Brown, founder of a community-driven fundraiser called Xmas Tree Wrap-Up, says after registering online at xmaswrapup.ca residents can get their tree picked up on Saturday, Jan. 6. The deadline to register is Wednesday.
“What inspired this was when back in 2020 the city stopped picking up Christmas trees,” Brown said. “I had a real tree that year and I didn’t know how we were going to get rid of it because we live in an apartment downtown without a backyard where we could store it until spring.
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“I thought a lot of folks are in the same boat, so maybe we can turn it into something that solves the problem but gives us an opportunity to give back.”
Over the last three years the group has collected more than 1,200 trees and raised more than $18,000 for the London Food Bank.
This year, their goal is to collect 1,000 trees and raise a four-year total of $30,000 to help match the growing demand on the food bank, Brown said.
The London Food Bank saw 6,075 families come through its doors last month, the highest demand for help in its 35-year history.
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Through a partnership with Bennett Rentals, volunteers in the tree pick-up drive – Brown’s friends and family – will be provided with five trucks to gather trees.
“Folks can register and make the donation on our website and then we take all of the addresses and make routes to group them together,” Brown said. “When we fill the truck, we take them to the EnviroDepot.”
The fundraiser gets larger every year, Brown said, with returning customers and those who have heard about it through word of mouth.
“It’s actually fun – I enjoy driving around picking up trees,” he said.
“Not sure my friends and family have as much fun as I do, (but) they are good sports every year.”
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