Woodland Trust vows to remove plastic tubes sheltering trees from animals in war against plastic

The charity, which hopes to plant 10 million trees each year to 2025, has announced it will be ending use of the tubes often seen on infant trees to shield them from damage from animals such as rabbits.

The Trust has been working with academics on plastic free alternatives to the tubes hoping to scale them up, including similar shelters made from poly-lactic acid and plant starch, as well as bio-based polymers.

The alternatives are currently being trialled at the Trust's site at Avoncliff in Wiltshire and, if successful, will be rolled out across the country including at Yorkshire sites subject to regeneration projects.

Ian Stanton, Head of Sustainability at the Woodland Trust said he wanted its sites to become the “hub of innovation” on the subject.

“We have been trialling a wide range of alternative plastic free products across a number of sites within our estate for some time and new innovative products are being added to these trials all the time," he said.

"Now it’s time to step up innovation on this with our plastic free pledge.

“Through these trials we are identifying products that are suitable to be scaled up across our estate.

"This, combined with innovative processes that avoid the need for tree tubes at all, will enable us to go plastic free from the end of this year and we are funding research to find viable alternatives.”

Some 14 alternatives to plastic shelters have been tabled, ranging from innovative products made of cardboard to one made from British wool. All of them are naturally biodegradable, the Trust said.

“We can’t pretend this doesn’t bring challenges," Mr Stanton added.

"We will plant 2.3 million saplings on our estate by 2025 - with more trees planted on other land - and up to half will need protection from deer.

"Or else they simply get eaten before they can establish.

"But the scourge of plastic pollution and the climate emergency make this problem urgent – we are determined to lead the way by using our estate as a living lab for sustainability innovation.”