Horses hit streets to collect trees

HORSE-drawn carriages are being used to collect Christmas trees in some areas of France this month – and not only does the idea look like catching on in new regions, it could be adapted to other services too.

For the first time this year, Annecy in Haute-Savoie and Chambéry in Savoie have organised collections of Christmas trees in the pedestrianised streets of their historic centres using hybrid carts that are partly motorised and partly drawn by horses. Each town is organising two collections, and the trees will be turned into compost.

Other towns have been running similar horse-drawn collections for several years, including Baud in Morbihan, Toul in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Cambrai in Nord, Aurillac in Cantal, Saint-Prix in Val-d'Oise and Bourg-en-Bresse in Ain.

Every new year the councils typically set up fenced-off collection points where people can leave their used trees, which are then collected by a cart and taken to be composted.

The collections continue throughout January, the whole operation costing €2,000 – but the authorities say that burning unwanted trees is three times as expensive as composting them.

In 2013 around four tonnes of Christmas trees were collected by carts. In order not to disrupt traffic, they are only used on cycle paths and pedestrianised streets.

In various parts of France, local councils are also experimenting with horse-drawn vehicles for a variety of other tasks including taking children to and from school, transporting tourists and collecting rubbish.

In Haute Savoie and Savoie the new service has been out-sourced to a company called Trialp – the two horses it is using, Casse-Cou and Hilton, are said to be enjoying their new job.

Does your town have any horse-drawn cart services? If it does, share your photos on our Facebook page by clicking on the link below!