Your live Christmas tree was beautiful and you and your family enjoyed the holiday cheer and warm memories it brought. Now, it is time to take down the trimmings and remove the tree from your home.
But what to do with it?
Up Next: Choosing A Professional Tree Care Service
Many people simply dump their Christmas tree, which adds to the unnecessary and unhealthy amount of green waste in local dumps. Instead, recycle your Christmas tree! In doing so, you will not only be doing yourself and the environment a favor, you will also be giving your tree a second life.
Why Recycle Christmas Trees?
Recycling your Christmas tree has many benefits for your community and environment. Live Christmas trees are biodegradable, which means they can be sent out into nature and won’t stick around for centuries like a plastic tree will.
Instead, a recycled tree will be put to many uses. For example:
Your Christmas Tree Can Be Turned Into Organic Mulch
One of the many uses for a recycled Christmas tree is that it, like other green waste, can be turned into high quality, 100% organic mulch! Mulch holds many benefits for you and your landscaping from helping prevent transplant shock on newly planted trees to helping maintain soil moisture and improve soil conditions.
When mulching your landscaping, remember to apply the correct techniques to avoid accidentally damaging your plants.
Recycled Christmas Trees Help Wildlife Habitats Thrive
Another benefit to recycling your Christmas tree is that the tree can be used to help maintain and improve wildlife habitats. Some uses for your old Christmas tree for habitats include:
- Submerging into lakes to create refuge and feeding areas for fish
- Building and maintaining sand dunes to help fight beach erosion
- Restoring river and stream banks, as well as controlling erosion
Don’t Burn Your Christmas Tree!
You should not burn your Christmas tree in your fireplace, woodstove, or out on your lawn. This is a bad idea for several reasons. For one, open burning may be illegal where you live and you may need a burning permit.
Secondly, the needles of Christmas trees contain substances called turpenes (which help give the trees their classic smell) that burn very quickly and can send sparks flying and possibly ignite creosote deposits and start a chimney fire. And the wood contains a lot of sap that can rapidly heat up and explode, potentially causing burns to those nearby.
Instead, Take To A Local Green Waste Recycling Center
One of the easiest ways to recycle your Christmas tree is to take it to a green waste recycling center like Hansen’s Tree Service. You may be charged a small fee but you can rest assured that your Christmas tree is in good hands and will be put to use to help the health of other trees and the environment!
So instead of switching to an artificial tree next Christmas season, choose a sustainable, live tree that can be put to good environmental use after the holiday season.