Schaerbeek collective will take your living Christmas tree

Do you hate getting rid of your Christmas tree every year? You’re not alone. Whether we feel terrible tossing something we cherished for weeks on the sidewalk for the rubbish collectors or cutting down a tree to use temporarily, many of us feel a twinge of guilt.

Now a Schaerbeek citizen’s collective is offering an alternative. If you live within a certain perimeter of Bûûmplanters, and your tree is still alive – with roots in a bucket of earth – you can drop it off, and volunteers will care for it until next year, when you can possibly pick it up again.

Yoeri Bellemans started Bûûmplanters in 2016 to convince people to plant trees on their property in Brussels. It also accepts trees and bushes that homeowners need to discard.

Brussels residents can come to the warehouse and grounds that the organisation maintains to adopt trees anytime. Those who live inside the perimeter (demarcated in yellow on its website homepage) can use the service for free, while those outside pay a fee for trees and other foliage.

An experiment

The Christmas tree initiative is an experiment, so, while any Brussels resident can drop off their living tree this Saturday morning, only those inside the perimeter have any chance of getting it back for free next year.

Such an initiative is quite new, so Bellemans isn’t even guaranteeing that those people will get their tree back next December. “But I can honestly say that we will do our best,” he told Bruzz.

Bûûmplanters is “a place where living plants that are still of value come together,” Bellemans explained. “We want to share this value with area residents.” The organization has donated trees to businesses, schools and individuals. Sometimes just a single tree, but also up to 40.

Bûûmplanters is accepting Christmas trees this Saturday, 11 January, between 10.00 and 12.00 at its warehouse at Rue Francois-Joseph Navez 110 in Schaerbeek.