What happens to your Christmas tree after the holidays?
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Listener Ashley Szwec from New York City asks:
What do cities do with all the Christmas trees on the curbs after the holidays? Are they reused in some way?
For the goats at the Farm at Awbury Arboretum in Philadelphia, the real Christmas festivities begin in January.
That’s when the Philly Goat Project hosts its annual Christmas Tree-Cycle event, which will take place the first three Saturdays of the year. Residents can drop off their Christmas trees and explore the farm, visit a petting area with the goats and enjoy s’mores and hot chocolate. The event is free, although the organization suggests a donation of $20 per tree.
Those post-holiday trees become snacks for the goats all the way to May. Leslie Jackson, community organizer at Philly Goat, said she and her colleagues keep a nice, big pile of the goats’ favorite flavors. Many of them especially like white pine. (Yes, they have preferences. Yes, they are Christmas tree connoisseurs.)
To the goats, a tree is the equivalent of a rotisserie chicken, said Karen Krivit, co-founder of the Philly Goat Project. The nonprofit, created in 2018, provides the community with animal-assisted therapy, youth job training and trail walks where visitors can learn about the environment, among other educational- and wellness-related activities.
Krivit said after the goats chomp the green needles off the trees, the remainder is turned into wood chips that line the trails and paddocks at the farm along with covering paths at parks and gardens in Philadelphia.
“The tree itself can become part of a new ecosystem’s life,” Krivit said. “So I think these days, just like composting, every municipality has a venue for people — no matter where they live — to find a sustainable place for their Christmas tree to exist.”
What should I know about recycling my Christmas tree?
Cities around the U.S. vary in how they handle or recycle natural Christmas trees after the holiday. Most artificial trees cannot be recycled, so experts recommend reusing them as much as possible or donating them.
The National Christmas Tree Association, which has a reuse and recycling guide on its website, said some cities will recycle trees that are placed curbside, but there are certain requirements, like removing the tree’s ornaments.
In Philadelphia, Christmas trees that are placed on the curb are taken as trash instead of composted, according to the city’s website. But the site notes that if you want to recycle it, you can arrange for private pickup services or drop it off at a community collection event, including Tree-Cycling with the Philly Goat Project.
In New York City, where listener Ashley Szwec lives, the Sanitation Department will collect clean Christmas trees that have had lights, ornaments and other decorations removed and recycle them into compost for the city’s “parks, institutions, and community gardens.”
But residents of Mankato, Minnesota, are not allowed to place their Christmas trees curbside, said Rick Baird, who is Mankato’s environmental sustainability coordinator. The city has four parks where residents can drop off their trees, which become mulch. There’s also a compost site in town that will take trees.
Because practices can vary from city to city, experts recommend checking with your own city to find out how your tree can be recycled.
There are a lot of creative uses for Christmas trees
Mulching is a common use for Christmas trees in the interior part of the country, from the Rockies to the Appalachians, said Melvin Koelling, a professor emeritus of forestry at Michigan State University.
Koelling said that on the Gulf Coast, communities might work with fisheries and wildlife personnel to transport trees and build up dikes that will collect sand when storms come. “It can also then be used to kind of stabilize what might be a shoreline that would be subject to erosion,” he said.
In some cases, Christmas trees are bundled together and sunk in a body of water where they provide a habitat for fish, Koelling added.
The National Christmas Tree Association states you can sink Christmas trees in private fish ponds to form a “refuge and feeding area.”
Other animals benefit too, like birds. The association wrote that a Christmas tree placed in your garden or backyard can be used as a bird feeder and sanctuary.
And, of course, goats love ‘em.
In Philadelphia, more people are learning about the Philly Goat Project’s work. The organization took 200 Christmas tree donations at its first Tree-Cycle event. Last year, it received 2,000.
The event cheers not just the goats, but people in the community who look forward to it every year.
“The thing that makes me really happy is the people who say, ‘This has become part of our Christmas tradition,’” said Leslie Jackson.
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