Oh Christmas trees: how to be 'green' at Christmastime

I thought of this story idea after seeing a shocking statistic about waste at Christmas. Deciding to focus specifically on Christmas trees, I called several Christmas tree delivery companies across Greater Manchester that considered themselves ‘sustainable’. I also arranged an interview with a member of the Salford Green Party to give further advice about recycling your tree.

For the radio package, I opened the piece with O’ Christmas Tree music to immediately draw in the listener but also reflect the Christmassy theme. After our first Christmas tree company interview fell through, we found another company which were happy to get involved. Whilst at the Christmas tree farm, I recorded clips of audio that would help give the piece a sense of location (wildtrack sound). This included clips of the tree seller chopping a tree down and selling it to a customer - this is a very common technique used by many radio stations. I then asked a couple at the tree farm about their opinion on artificial trees and surprisingly they had divided opinions – this added greatly to the piece as it added an element of discussion. The interview with the Salford Green Party member gave a voice of authority and knowledge and ended my package nicely. This was aimed at all Salford residents, particularly those interested in being eco-friendlier this Christmas.

You can listen to the full package here:

https://soundcloud.com/lucy-clayton-521885537/xmas-tree-radio-package