Recycle Your Christmas Tree

Friday, January 05, 2007

Are you taking down your Christmas tree this weekend? Consider letting it live on in your garden or yard -- in the form of mulch or a protective shelter for wild birds. Organic Gardening has a great list of 6 ways to recycle a tree, which suggests turning it into mulch, a trellis, or -- this one's new to me -- a habitat enhancement for pond-dwelling fish.

My tree will be getting a place in my garden plot. The birds can use it for shelter, and, as the needles fall, they will add organic matter to the soil. I live in a city neighborhood where a lot of people, I'm guessing, would frown upon the sight of a decomposing Christmas tree in someone's yard. But the community garden is situated in a somewhat out-of-the way location and I don't think the garden association has any restrictions on using Christmas trees as mulch, or... bird habitat enhancement. So that's what I'm going to do this year.

If you are looking for other options for tree disposal, visit Earth 911's Treecycling page. There you can type in your zip code and find a location near you that will recycle your tree.

Image by Earth 911

If you have an artificial tree you want to get rid of, consider selling it on eBay, calling a local charity to see if they can use it next year, or offering it to someone on Freecycling. Freecycling is incredibly easy to do, if you have a computer and an Internet connection (which you do!). Simply go to the Freecycling page and search for a freecycling group in your local area. When you have something to give away -- be it an artificial tree, an old TV, a bunch of old gardening magazines you don't read anymore -- post an e-mail message to the freecycling list. People in your local freecycling network who are interested in that item will e-mail you back. Then you can make arrangements to have one person pick up the item they want. It is so simple and a great way to keep stuff from going into landfills. One person's trash can be another person's treasure. You'd be surprised!