Voices of Forestry presents analysis and insight from people working all across the forestry sector. In this issue, James Anderson-Bickley, chartered forester and former chair of the UK and Ireland Forest Plastics Working Group, and James Taylor, commercial director at Tubex, put forward the case for a coherent and comprehensive approach to collecting and recycling. tree shelters of all kinds.

James Anderson-Bickley: Tree shelters and guards have been available since the 1980s and their use has increased since then. For my generation of foresters, they have been a prevalent method of broadleaf tree protection, particularly in England. In Scotland, deer management and fencing are the predominant methods to reduce herbivore impacts on new planting sites. In Wales, NRW’s focus on waste reduction means tree shelters are considered the option of last resort.

Tree shelters and guards offer several benefits. Their main use is to support tree establishment by protecting trees from herbivore damage. However, there can be environmental impacts and external costs associated with their use. We are again planting trees at scale, and care must be taken that we are not creating another problem in its wake.

In open environments, ensuring closed-loop lifecycle processes can be challenging. Due to climate change, we are now experiencing more frequent, extreme and intense storm and flood events. This increases the risk of alien materials from tree shelters and guards becoming pollutants in terrestrial, riparian and marine ecosystems. Their use in riparian and exposed upland areas presents risks that can no longer be easily ignored.

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Tree shelters and guards become redundant within up to 10 years of their installation, once they have helped the tree to become well established. On fertile sites with fast-growing tree species, this period may be as short as three years. At this point, they become waste that must be recovered and reused or recycled. If they are left on site or lost from site, they become litter and pollution. There is a significant legacy of neglected tree shelter and guard waste associated with woodland creators leaking into the environment. Additionally, tree shelters can encourage trees to bolt. Their use can lead to poor stem and root development that can impact tree stability.

The estimated annual use of this class of product is thought to be over 20 million a year.

However, there is little accurate data on the extent of their use over the last few decades. Last year, the Forest Plastics Working Group and Tubex’s Collection & Recycling Programme enabled the collection and recycling of over 350,000 tree shelters that were at risk of being leaked into the environment.

Society and governments expect sustainable environmental practices. The principles of the waste hierarchy and circular economy are increasingly important in how we live and work. All tree shelters and guards, whether made from fossil-based or bio-based materials, should be recovered. The UK Forestry Standard now states that while tree shelters and guards may provide an effective alternative to fencing, the use of plastics, whether made from oil-based or bio-based polymers, should be avoided or reduced as much as possible. When redundant, tree shelters and guards should be removed and recycled to avoid the impacts of bio-accumulation in the forest soil.

James Taylor: As the forestry sector strives to meet the UK’s ambitious planting targets, the role of plastic shelters in helping to achieve this has come under scrutiny, driven by plastic waste concerns. 

These understandable concerns are a result of a historic lack of planning and infrastructure to ensure that used shelters are responsibly disposed of. Too often they have been left behind in fields, woodlands and along roadsides, contributing to a negative perception of their environmental impact.

This has cast doubts over the future of plastic shelters and seen the explosion of biodegradable shelters introduced to the market, including our own.

With that said, recyclable plastic shelters are still the most proven, cost-effective, and scalable solution for successful tree establishment and, despite some misconceptions, remain the lowest-impact shelter solution when properly collected and recycled. 

(Image: Westonbirt)

However, if the use of recycled shelters is to continue, their sustainable and responsible disposal must be assured.

At Tubex, we are committed to making the recycling of shelters as accessible as possible through our Collection & Recycling Programme – but any long-term solution will need buy-in from both manufacturers and tree planters alike. 

By promoting collaboration and collective responsibility, our aim is to ensure that tree shelters are not only effective during their use period, but are also responsibly managed at end of life.

It’s easy for us to say that everyone should take responsibility for shelter collection, but as a manufacturer we understand we must play our part by providing the necessary infrastructure for recycling, which is why our Collection & Recycling Programme is deliberately designed to make recycling as straightforward as possible for end users.

The programme offers free shelter recycling at 17 hubs across the UK, providing convenient drop-off points for used polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) shelters from any manufacturer. The collaboration with our distributors and key forestry organisations has been vital to the success of this initiative, enabling us to make recycling available at distributor and partner hubs all around the country.

For those unable to drop off shelters, we also offer a pick-up service for a small fee per bag.

While it’s essential for manufacturers like us to provide these recycling options, it is also important for foresters, farmers and landowners to fulfil their own commitment, by collecting and recycling shelters on their land. Many grants, such as the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO), state that you must ‘remove and dispose of tree guards in an appropriate manner (for example recycle) when no longer required, and by year 15 in all cases’ – making it the responsibility of all of us.

Industry bodies and organisations also have a role to play in spreading awareness, ensuring that planters are aware of the available recycling infrastructures. Here, transparency and collaboration are key to upholding best practices and ensuring that tree shelters remain a sustainable method of proven tree protection.

We are dedicated to supporting the forestry industry in a collective effort to recycle all legacy tree shelters. By working together, we can all be part of a circular solution that allows trees to survive and thrive to maturity.