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dec 26

Recycle Your Christmas Tree

Make sure that beautiful holiday tree meets an organic end, plan ahead and recycle your tree.

Many communities offer curbside pick up of trees, others have drop off locations or wood chipping services. But most communities only collect trees during a specific time period. If you miss it, your tree will wind up in a landfill where even the most natural trash is unlikely to decompose. Figure out now where and when to recycle your tree.  Check with your city or local sanitation department, or look online on Earth911. If you have a backyard, your tree's branches make an excellent protective mulch in your garden. Pine needles can be tossed under outdoor plants, particularly young trees or shrubs that prefer acidic soil.

Remove all ornaments and tinsel from your tree and don't put your tree in a plastic bag, just haul it out in it's natural state. If you want to avoid a shower of pine needles inside, wrap it in a sheet to carry it outside.

What might happen to your tree? Christmas trees are often used as mulch for water conservation and weed control, along hiking paths, sunk in lakes as habitat for fish or even turned into fuel at biomass plants.

MinuteMorningMonth
  • Find out where and when to recycle your Christmas tree, check with your city or sanitation department or look it up on Earth911 .
  • Recycle or compost your Christmas tree in your own backyard. Toss pine needles under outdoor plants and use the branches to winterize your garden.





Comments (3)
RSS comments
1. 12/31/2007 11:33:37 AM
In New York City, the sanitation department will pick up and recycle trees from January 3 to 16. Mulchfest, where you can have your tree chipped at local parks and gardens and then take home a bag of mulch, is January 5 and 6. Check the NYC Parks site for more info: http://www.nycgovparks.org/services/mulchfest/mulchfest.html
Written by Mulchfest! (Guest)
2. 01/20/2008 10:42:38 AM
EASIER CHRISTMAS TREE REMOVAL = LOP OFF ALL BRANCHES (SAVING NEEDLES FOR AROMATIC STUFFING), THEN JUST TAKE OUT THE TRUNK, MUCH LIKE REMOVING A BROOM!
Written by MARY ANN (Guest)
3. 01/28/2008 01:36:33 PM
Better idea still, and what I did this past year---use a live, potted Norfolk Pine for your tree, produces oxygen in your home and no need to recycle it after the holidays, just take the ornaments off and put them away for next year!
Written by HME (Guest)

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