Every year, millions of Americans opt to get a real Christmas tree for the holiday season. We love the smell, the look, the act of picking out the tree. But when Christmas comes to an end, rarely do we give a second thought to what becomes of our Christmas tree when we put it out on the curb.
Many municipalities have composting programs where trees are chipped and added to the compost. But far too often, millions of trees end up in the landfill. Sure, unlike most of what’s in the landfill, a Christmas tree will decompose and break down, returning to the earth. But they break down slowly and take up a lot of room.
This year, why not consider one of these alternate options when you’ve taken the last ornament off and packed up the lights for the season?
1. Send it to the Zoo
Call a nearby zoo. Yup! Many zoos will accept donations of Christmas trees to be used in habitats around the facility. The animals love to play with the Christmas trees, nibble on them or even hide in them.
2. A Conservation Christmas
If you have a local wildlife rehabilitation center, they, too, may appreciate the donation of a Christmas tree. Often, they need to mimic the habitats of the animals in their care, and a tree is great for birds and other small animals.
3. A Haven for Small Wildlife
Of course, there’s no need to take your tree all the way to a wildlife center for little critters to benefit. There’s a wealth of good to have by putting your Christmas tree somewhere on your property. Be sure you remove all of the tinsel first.
It will become a beneficial microhabitat for the wildlife in your area. Birds always appreciate the safety of dense cover like a tree. Beneficial insects can use it to nest in each year. Letting a Christmas tree slowly break down is an easy way to help mitigate the loss of pollinator populations.
If you feed songbirds, you can really go all out and redecorate your tree with bird-friendly snacks, like these 2-ingredient birdseed ornaments. The new tree tenants will absolutely love them.
4. Don’t Forget the Fish
Do you have a pond, lake or stream on your property? Toss the tree in! Once it sinks to the bottom, it will become a hiding spot for the local aquatic residents such as fish, turtles, frogs, salamanders and more. Naturally, this is only an option on private property; you shouldn’t dump your tree into a public waterway. That being said, call your local conservation office, as some may have programs to collect trees for larger lakes.
5. Enjoy that Yule Log All Year Long
My family’s favorite way of disposing of our annual Christmas tree is a little at a time, all year long. We like to lop off the branches with loppers and stack them aside to start fires in the fire pit. The soft, pitch-filled wood of evergreens and their dried-out needles are excellent fire starters.
Our Christmas tree kindling usually lasts us right up until we start getting ready for the next holiday season.
Similarly, save the trunk to use as next year’s Yule log. Buck it into smaller pieces if needed.
6. Compost It
If you have access to a wood chipper, adding the chipped remains of your Christmas tree to your compost pile is always a good idea. Waste not, want not.
7. Feed It to a Goat
Yup, you read that right. Apparently, some farms with goats accept donated Christmas trees for their goats to snack on in the new year. Who knew? Call around in your area and see if there’s a goat just hankering to munch on your discarded Christmas tree.
Now that you’ve got a few ideas on what you can do with that crunchy Christmas tree, here’s one thing you shouldn’t do with it – stuff it in a plastic bag.
Skip the Giant Plastic Bag
Every year, retailers offer up giant plastic bags to dispose of Christmas trees. The idea is that if you stuff your Christmas tree in this monstrously huge plastic bag, it will leave less of a mess behind on its way out of your home.
Unfortunately, while this might be true, you’re now leaving a mess behind in a landfill that won’t break down for centuries. Even then, the plastic bags don’t fully degrade but break down into microplastics. And I’m sure we’ve all heard enough about microplastics to know they’re bad news.
Instead, opt for a sheet. Yup, a regular ol’ bed sheet.
I hit up Goodwill many years ago and grabbed a single king-sized fitted sheet. It’s my official Christmas tree sheet, and it gets used every year to bring the tree into the house and take it out again. Because of the elastic, it envelopes the tree nicely and gives me something to grab onto when carting it out of the house.
It protects my floors and the branches when bringing the tree in and keeps the falling needles wrapped up in the sheet on its way out.
