Our bold pledge to stop using new plastic tree guards on our land in 2021 put us at the forefront of the movement to eradicate plastic from planting schemes UK-wide. We’re funding research to extend the range of alternatives and are now moving towards sustainable tree protection in other areas.
We’ve pledged to move towards sustainable forms of tree protection and have already phased out new plastic tree guards on our land. Now we’re extending our pledge to cut the volume of plastic we use even further.
From 2023, anyone ordering subsidised tree or hedge packs from our online shop can choose whether they want protection included. Schools and communities applying for free tree packs will now be sent guidance on how to plant and care for their trees rather than receiving plastic protection as standard. For now, our other woodland creation, tree and hedge schemes will still be supplied with protection.
In many situations, trees will establish and survive well without any protection at all. If you feel protection is still essential for your planting project, you can explore protection options on our online shop.
We’re trialling and testing alternative approaches to establishment, taking an evidence led approach to see how different products and techniques fare. We’ve been testing a variety of non-plastic products at our Avoncliff site since 2019. We're also a member of the Forest Plastics Working Group which brings partners together to focus on reducing plastic use in tree and woodland establishment. A comprehensive range of sector representatives are members, and the group has some excellent resources, webinars and conferences.
In the quest to find a range of alternative solutions to tree protection, trials and research will continue over the next few years. We want you to be able to make an informed and flexible choice about how to care for your trees. We’ll keep sharing our results as we find them.
If you have any experience of testing different types of protection with our supplied trees, we’d like to hear from you – please contact us at plant@woodlandtrust.org.uk
As one of the nation’s largest tree planters, we are set to be trail blazers in this field and have the opportunity to catalyse a permanent change to the tree planting world. In 2019 we established a trial site at Avoncliff Wood, near Bath, to test the new, plastic-free products coming onto the market. The trial is one of the longest running in the UK and now has nearly 20 different types of non-plastic tubes in use across 5,000 new trees, with more models being added by the week.
Site manager Joe Middleton explains.
So this is one of the UK's leading trial sites, the most amount of tree guards. We've got 14 different types of alternate tree guards here.
These are 5,000 trees in loads of different biodegradable tree guard options. And they only really became available round about 2019.
So we've got ones made of paper, cardboard, polylactic acid, plant starch, cashew nut shell resin, wool - we've got the whole shebang. Anything that is on offer to help us with this big climate crisis, both for carbon and also the big ecological crisis, to allow the wildlife to spread into these areas.
This will be a woodland in 20 years time, so in the meantime we're just protecting that and allowing them to get up to a height where they're safe from browsing, using all of these innovative methods.
Credit: Phil Formby / WTML
A wide variety of materials are being trialed, including biodegradable designs and innovative products made from:
Credit: Phil Formby / WTML
It's vital that any alternative products are more sustainable than the plastic tree guards they are replacing. We've partnered with University College London to undertake a landmark study to analyse the ‘cradle to grave’ environmental credentials of non-plastic alternatives, from their component ingredients to the carbon impact of manufacturing and importing them. We are sharing our findings across the industry, and will also co-fund a larger five-year field study led by the Government’s science arm Forest Research.
That's how much funding we're committing to research on plastic-free alternatives
Newly planted trees are susceptible to browsing by wildlife during their first 10 years of growth. Tree shelters, also called tree guards or tubes, are a common and effective method of protecting against this damage, maximising the chance of saplings establishing into thriving woodland.
Plastic tree shelters in particular have become one of the most commonly used forms of browsing management throughout the forestry sector. They tend to be the most economical and durable option, able to withstand up to 10 years in all weather conditions.
Non-plastic alternatives have only very recently become commercially available, and to date none of these alternatives have demonstrated that they remain effective for the required length of time. We're working to change that.
We've committed to ending the use of new single-use plastic tree shelters on our land from 2021, and to ensuring that all existing shelters are removed at the end of their life. The ultimate goal is to have no plastic tree guards in use across any of our activities by 2030.
To do this we are:
The most sustainable tree guard is no tree guard at all. Our priority focus is on establishing planting techniques and processes that avoid the use of individual tree protection wherever possible. Some of the methods we use to help protect newly planted trees from browsing include:
Although tree guards are designed to be single use, we have been establishing processes that maximise the opportunities for re-using tubes a number of times before recycling them.
Work at sites such as Brynau Farm near Neath, South Wales has demonstrated that it is possible to triple the useful life of tree tubes by reusing them up to three times. This requires careful selection of the right type of tube and fixing, as well as detailed planning and management to ensure that there is a defined continued use for the guards.
It has been standard practice on our estate for some time to re-use plastic guards if possible, or to recycle them at the end of their useful life. We will continue to do this until all of the plastic tree shelters currently in use on our estate are used up.
We are working with manufacturers and recyclers to develop a recycling process that turns old tubes into material for the manufacture of recycled tree tubes.
Many of the tubes used across our estate come from Tubex. We are working with them to ensure that we can segregate these tubes on collection to ensure they are recycled as part of Tubex's closed loop recycling scheme. We are also collaborating across the sector to ensure that any operational barriers to recycling are eliminated.
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About us
With increasing numbers of tree pests and diseases in the UK, it's important we have confidence in the trees we plant. Find out more about how our trees are sourced and grown.
Policy paper
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Plant trees
The UK needs more trees. We plant millions of native trees every year, but planting is just one way to help the UK's woodlands expand. Allowing nature to take its course is also an effective and efficient method of getting more trees in the ground.
Climate change
Our message is clear: native woods and trees are one of the best ways to tackle the climate crisis. Explore the facts and find out what you can do to help.
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