Last weekend, the volunteer fire brigades in the district of Giessen set out to collect thousands of disused Christmas trees. Herbert Becker from Technical Services and Head of Biomass Logistics at Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) knows: "When the fairy lights and glass baubles are stowed away in the attic, tenants and homeowners want to dispose of the discarded fir and spruce trees as quickly as possible." The fire brigades from Central Hessen are therefore taking on an important task. They have collected hundreds of cubic metres of waste wood again this year.
"We want to support the volunteers in their work here in the region. Because the question for them is: what to do with the disused conifers?" explains Matthias Funk, Head of District Heating Supply at SWG. Stadtwerke Gießen is currently taking care of the removal in 13 towns and municipalities. The energy company had provided containers free of charge in several municipalities to store the leftover wood for a few days.
The final utilisation of the Christmas trees takes place in the combined heat and power plants in Schlachthofstraße and Jacksonstraße. Here, SWG shreds the fir and spruce trees into woodchippings and produces CO2-neutral heating energy for the district heating network.