More than 18,000 Christmas trees have been shredded by Dublin Corporation since its festive recycling scheme started at the beginning of the month.
However, thousands of people are only now getting round to disposing of their trees. Dublin Corporation planned to stop accepting them last Sunday, but had to extend the scheme and has received about 2,000 trees since.
It expects to receive more in the coming days, bringing the total number of trees recycled by the local authority to over 20,000.
This compares to about 5,000 trees recycled by Cork Corporation and 3,000 by Galway Corporation. Christmas tree recycling in the three cities is estimated to be up between 1525 per cent.
Ms Lisa McKnight of Dublin Corporation said it had been forced to extend the recycling operation due to the high number of late-comers who continue to deposit trees at 12 designated locations throughout the city. The trees are chipped by mechanical means and used as mulch in Dublin parks and open spaces.
"The main objective has been to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill sites and to reinforce the idea of separating organic waste from other waste."
She added: "The participation rate has increased but more so on the southside than the northside."
Figures from other local authorities concur. An estimated 15,000 Christmas trees were recycled by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, compared to 10,000 by its northside neighbour, Fingal County Council.
The most impressive total, however, was gained by Lucan in west Dublin. Up to 4,500 trees have been recycled in the area since January 6th, a 100 per cent increase on last year.
