How to Recycle Your Christmas Tree

According to Earth911.com, "Between 30 and 35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. each year. Luckily, about 93 percent of those trees are currently being recycled through more than 4,000 available recycling programs."  That's encouraging news!  One of the most common ways old trees are recycled is as mulch for playgrounds, trails, landscaping, etc.  There are many other novel ways that used Christmas trees are being recycled and reused, from providing habitat for animals, to helping to stop erosion. 

Each January, 400 old Christmas trees are strapped to a concrete block and dumped in Lake Havasu, which is a man-made desert lake located in Arizona and California.  These trees, which take a decade to decompose, form a reef for young bass, bluegills and other fish.  This provides protection and a habitat for the fish, and has considerably improved the fishing in Lake Havasu.

For the past 16 years donated Christmas trees have been used as a wetland preserver in southern Louisiana's coastal marshes.  The used trees are converted into four-foot-tall cribs that help to collect the sediment from the water as it rushes in.  Eventually, the sediment builds up behind the crib to form new land that helps to build up the eroded shore.

In Tomahawk, Wisconsin, the Packaging Corporation of America burns about 500 used trees a year as a source of power for their paper mills.  The resulting steam powers the mill for ten minutes.

On Baker Lake Island in Cook County, Illinois, volunteers prop used trees on foot-tall steel pipes to provide nests for herons and egrets.

To find the nearest Christmas tree recycling program near you, visit Earth911.com, or click on the previous link.

Comments

[Kimberly]

Along the gulf coast of Texas groups are taking real Christmas trees to place along the dunes of beaches eroded by Ike.