The Christmas Tree That Made The Best From Waste

At the Mar Thoma Church in central Bengaluru’s Primrose Road, you will find a 25-feet tall ‘green’ Christmas tree. Green, not because of its colour, but because of its eco-friendliness. Towering almost as high as the church steeple, this tree is made entirely of recyclable cardboard boxes, old cartons corrugated and painted brightly to suit the spirit of the season.

Put together by a team of 20 parishioner-volunteers of the church, this is the ninth year in a row when the church strives to showcase a ‘recyclable’ tree.

“You can always go to the market to pick up things for a tree but we decided to make it more eco-friendly and get the message out – to use something one last time before being thrown out. So we do this every year,” says Daniel Thomas, one of the volunteers behind the Tree 2016 idea.

The members sent word out to all parishioners to contribute boxes. There were initial worries about the cardboard structure collapsing in the rain following Cyclone Vardah, so while they have been working on the tree for over three weeks, they had to wait (and pray) for the rains to stop before they put up the cardboard structure. Already, the tree has begun leaning a bit and they have their fingers crossed.

“I am worried that it is already changing shape, but hopefully, it stays for another six to ten days, we should be okay. A bamboo structure holds up the tree from within,” says Thomas.

The eco-friendly frenzy does not stop here. Enter the church, and you will see beautiful wreaths on each of its walls: made of painted jute gunny bags and cloth ribbons, structured around bamboo stars.

Over the years, this church has experimented with materials ranging from plastic bottles, old tyres, now-extinct video tapes, coconut leaves, dry vegetables, jacquard loom cards, newspapers and even grass – basically, everything except a conventional tree. And that’s where the challenge lies every year – to think of an imaginative way to use waste.