Warsaw recycles Christmas trees to heat homes

Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-18 01:33:50|Editor: yan
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WARSAW, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The municipal authorities of the Polish capital have been collecting Christmas trees set out by the inhabitants for curbside pick-ups and burning them to heat people's homes in an ecological way, local media reported on Friday.

Waste collectors in the Polish capital have been collecting Christmas trees since early January with the purpose of turning them into bioenergy.

Justyna Glusman, a representative of the Warsaw City Hall, told Polish media that they expected over 1,200 tons of wood to be collected this year, the largest quantity in five years since the initiative started. She explained that the wood collected was enough to heat -- in an ecologically responsible way -- 700 apartments of an average size of 60 square meters.

The wood is burnt in special boilers at high temperature -- a process that emits less greenhouse gases than burning coal. Two tons of biomass are needed to produce the same amount of energy as from one ton of coal.

Some cities in Poland have been struggling to reduce smog levels, which get particularly high during the winter months and are in part caused by burning bad quality coal for heating homes.

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