Christmas trees recycled for good causes

31 December 2025

Vanessa PearceWest Midlands

News image — Pass the Smile was set up by Ben's parents Scott and Sarah to raise funds for research

Scott Crowther A smiling Ben Crowther wears a red and black striped jumper. He is sitting on a hospital bed with an oxygen tube connected to his nose. He is smiling and making a heart shape with his hands. — Pass the Smile was set up by Ben's parents Scott and Sarah to raise funds for research

Anyone who needs to dispose of their real Christmas tree is encouraged to recycle it and help raise money for charity.

Hundreds of volunteers collect the trees which are then shredded and sent to either biomass for electricity generation or to create peat-free compost.

The scheme runs across Coventry and Warwickshire raising money for The Myton Hospices and Pass the Smile, which raises funds for research into childhood cancer. All CV postcodes are covered, said organisers, who are running the scheme for the seventh year.

Collections will be from Friday 9 January to Sunday 11 January and registration for tree collection closes on 5 January.

Pass the Smile was set up by Scott and Sarah Crowther in memory of their son Ben, in conjunction with the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group.

Ben died in June 2019, aged seven, only a year after he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of tumour.

So far more than £300,000 has been raised in his memory.

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