Local charity benefits from Christmas tree recycling
News from our partners Veolia
Residents in Shropshire recycled nearly 4,000 real Christmas trees in the first three weeks of January 2016.
Veolia in Shropshire, the waste contractor for Shropshire Council, have donated £3,000 to locally based charity Caring for God’s Acre. Its mission is to champion the conservation of churchyards and burial grounds and their importance to people and nature. In Shropshire, the Churchyard Task Team is a group of volunteers who help manage and maintain churchyards, making them look beautiful and encouraging nature to visit.
A cheque was this week handed over to the charity.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Ben Mullen, Churchyard Task Team Co-ordinator for Caring for God’s Acre, said:
“Cemeteries and churchyards are really important for wildlife and local history: we are very excited and thankful to Veolia for donating this amazing amount of money to the charity. It will go towards the valuable conservation work of the task team across Shropshire.”
Mark Hunter, Operations Manager for Veolia, commented:
“We would like to thank the residents of Shropshire for recycling their real Christmas trees as part of this scheme.”
The trees were collected by the Veolia team both at the kerbside and at the five Household Recycling Centres across Shropshire (Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Craven Arms, Whitchurch and Bridgnorth).
Members of the Veolia team regularly take part in volunteering activities at the Longdon Road Cemetery in Shrewsbury. This is part of Veolia’s commitment to local community groups which gives each member of staff a day away from work to volunteer.
For more information about how to volunteer for Caring for God’s Acre’s Churchyard Task Team contact Ben Mullen, 01588 673041 or ben@cfga.org.uk.
Further information
About Veolia UK
We are committed to protecting the environment and improving the lives of the communities in which we operate and have been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development and received a Four Star rating in Business in the Community’s Corporate Responsibility Index for 2015.
Veolia group is the global leader in optimised resource management. With over 179,000 employees* worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and helps to replenish them.
In 2014, the Veolia group supplied 96 million people with drinking water and 60 million people with wastewater service, produced 52 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 31 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia Environnement (listed on Paris Euronext: VIE and NYSE: VE) recorded consolidated revenue of €24.4 billion* in 2014.
(*) 2014 pro-forma figures including Dalkia International (100%) and excluding Dalkia France.
About Caring for God’s Acre
There are over 12,000 burial grounds across England and Wales and it is well documented that they are a rich source of wildlife, often functioning as a sanctuary for flora and fauna which are rare and endangered elsewhere in the UK. From song thrushes and swifts to hedgehogs, newts and slow worms, the biodiversity of these areas also encompasses species of international importance, for instance, Yew trees and bumblebees.
They are also important for their historic man-made structures such as monuments and memorials, boundary walls, lychgates, preaching crosses and mausalea. This varied interest makes them ideal places for learning and for community activity such as practical conservation work and recording of the stonework and wildlife habitats. Caring for God’s Acre produces a special Churchyard and Burial Ground Action pack full of useful information on a wide range of topics to help people with their local sites. The pack can be downloaded from the website free of charge or purchased as a pack from Caring for God’s Acre.
