Recycling Christmas trees

The day after Christmas is a busy day for many, putting up decorations, going shopping and of course, figuring out what to do with your Christmas tree.

If you have a tree in your home and you’re wondering what to do with it there are several places set up throughout Jefferson City, where you can drop them off.

“We encourage people to recycle their Christmas trees by dropping them off at Washington Park through the end of January or drop them off at the Compost site at 2417 South Ridge Dr.”, says Director of Planning and Protective Services Janice McMillan.

“Originally we’ve collected between 1,100 to 1,000 trees and now it’s down to about 500 and of those 500 about 100 we grind up in conservation and the rest people take to put in their lakes, ponds or fishing habitats”, says City Forester Ray Wallace.

For the last 16 years Ray Wallace has been collecting trees after Jefferson City home owners are done using them. He says that even though more people are using fake trees, it’s important for those that aren’t, to remember they can always recycle. The trees the city does grind up, end up in parks like this one.

“Once they are dropped off here we don’t do anything with them until January 31st, between then and January 31st the conservation department will call, local people, pond or landowners will call and ask for trees and let us know how many they want to pick up and then from there to the end of January we grind up whatever is left over”, says Wallace.

Wallace says to just remember,”we reuse it all”.