Ways to Recycle Christmas Tree & Use For New Year Decoration

With holidays winding down, it’s time to clean up everything. While there’s a spot for everything in your house after cleanup, you may be wondering what to do with the festive Christmas tree. Whether your tree is recently cut, live, or fake, you may consider recycling your tree in the greenest way possible.

Here are different some distinct ways you can recycle Christmas trees:

Replant Live Christmas tree

One of the most eco-friendly ways to recycle Christmas trees is by replanting them. Whether you dug one in the ground or a big plant pot, a live tree comes with a prosperous and long life ahead. This is what’s good for the air we breathe in and to improve the outdoor area around your house.

Also Read: 7 New Year Decoration Ideas To Impress Your Guests

What you plan to do with your live tree is dependent on the future goals and the existing landscape. If you pot your Christmas tree, you can again reuse it next year without even wasting it. But if a tree is large or you don’t want to set it up next year, you can consider planting it in the ground. When planting it on the ground, make sure that you choose a location away from buildings or fencing.

If a situation does not support keeping the tree in a pot or planting it on the ground, you can give it to someone who can place it somewhere permanently.

Cut Christmas Tree and Reuse It

At the end of the Christmas season, often your tree is likely to get pulled from a stand and moved somewhere outside your house. You can even decide what to do with your tree. Even some citywide curbside recycling services are there to pick up the trees after Christmas.

Usually, they enable you to put your tree alongside recycling, waste, and yard debris receptacles by mid of January. Even extra trucks may come to pick up trees and get them delivered to the local industrial yard debris center. At this center, these Christmas trees are often turned into compost or bark chips. It gives trees a full life cycle while selling them back to the community gardens. Who knows, your used Christmas tree ends up at someone’s flower garden or any public park.

In case you miss a deadline or your community won’t offer you a tree pickup service, you can begin to process your tree. You can do so by cutting the limbs into smaller pieces for the yard debris bin or compost pile. After that, cut the trunks into small sections for the backyard fire pit or campfires. Evergreens have high sap content, so it’s best to burn them outside your house instead of bringing them to use in a woodstove or fireplace.

In regional areas, you can even let your tree to breakdown naturally in the woods. You can even sink your tree in a local pond or lake where fish and other animals may use it as their habitat. Also, check with the local land management company in your area to see if this is a great option for you.

No matter what you do with the tree, take it out to the outdoor space and shape it with pine needles off. The soil and plants will use it as mulch for adding nutrients while aiding proper temperature control.

Artificial trees

Since artificial trees consist of a combination of materials, they are not recyclable. Due to this, they are the least eco-friendly. Nonetheless, there is some value in using the same tree for several years. No matter how long or how you use it, disposing of your artificial tree is not a good option for the environment.

The best thing you can do is keep it out of the landfill for as long as you can. Instead of throwing it into a waste pile, it’s best to donate it to a thrift shop or offer it to someone in your community.

DIY crafts with your Christmas tree

Even your dead tree can bring a new life to your home decor or gift packs. Your tree is a good source of wood. And, just like any home improvement store, it’s best to make use of it. You can cut the trunk in different portions of thick squares. Also, cut a groove into its top for making a cell phone holder for a desk. All you need to do is grab a saw and further cut its base into rounds for sanding it down and shaping it in the form of ornaments or coasters for the new year.

Via: Inhabitat