Give Back in Treecember with Bulk Christmas Tree Recycling

‘Tis the season to talk about Christmas tree recycling, especially if you own multi-family properties. Once it’s time to close out the holiday season, you’re going to have a lot of Christmas trees on your hands.

While it might seem easier to send the trees out with the garbage, there are many reasons to consider Christmas tree recycling instead, including giving back to the planet one tree at a time through our Treecember campaign! At CheckSammy we are giving the gift of sustainability this festive season.

3 Reasons to Consider Christmas Tree Recycling This Holiday Season

Here are three of the biggest reasons to consider Christmas tree recycling for your property or business this season.

1. Helps You Avoid Unnecessary Garbage Fees

From a purely pragmatic perspective, garbage overage fees are wildly expensive right now. Christmas tree recycling helps keep the trees out of the waste stream and eliminates needless overage fees.

2. It’s Better for The Environment

Every 1.2 seconds, we destroy an area of the forest equal to the size of a football field. In fact, 46% of the world’s forests have already been destroyed. These figures are devastating because trees clean our air and water, create habits for biodiversity, contribute to our health and wellbeing, and create jobs for social impact.

Yet, 25-30 million Christmas trees are cut down and sold each year in the U.S. Unfortunately, most of them are tossed in the garbage and sent to rot away in our landfills. We already have a landfill problem and sending Christmas trees to landfills contributes to that problem.

And while trees are biodegradable, it takes them a while to break down – 200 to 300 years to be exact.  During this 200–300-year period, the trees take up valuable space in the landfill. They’re also producing methane gas at a much higher rate than regular trash, which can accelerate leachate and possibly contaminate groundwater.

So, choosing to recycle Christmas trees is the environmentally-conscious choice.

3. Take Part in CheckSammy’s Treecember Campaign

Avoiding garbage overage fees and helping the environment are two significant benefits to Christmas tree recycling, but we’re sweetening the pot this year with our Treecember campaign.

This holiday season, we’re thrilled to be partnering with One Tree Planted (@onetreeplanted) to plant a tree for every order made at CheckSammy in December!

This means if you choose to recycle Christmas trees with us, you’re helping the environment in two ways, by disposing of the trees properly and by helping us plant new ones in their place.

It’s worth noting that the Treecember campaign isn’t just for Christmas tree recycling. We’re planting a tree for every order this season – no matter what CheckSammy service you order.

So, what does Christmas tree recycling entail? How can you set up a bulk Christmas tree recycling program for your multi-family property or business? Here’s everything else you need to know about recycling your Christmas trees this holiday season.

Christmas Tree Recycling: What Happens to the Trees?

A few different things can happen when you choose to recycle Christmas trees:

• The trees are sent to a facility to be chipped and turned into mulch, which can be used in gardens, community parks, playgrounds, and more.
• The trees are placed into lakes to create and improve habitats for underwater life. They serve as a place for small fish to hide and insects and algae to grow, providing the lake ecosystem with a new food source.
• The trees are used to restore and maintain dunes on the coast.

When comparing Christmas tree recycling to throwing the trees in the garbage, Christmas tree recycling comes out ahead every time. So, how do you go about bulk Christmas tree recycling when you have an entire apartment complex or community’s worth of trees to recycle?

How to Recycle Christmas Trees

A plan of action is crucial when you need to recycle a lot of Christmas trees. You can partner with a local nonprofit or set up waste containers to collect the trees and then chop them up and recycle them through your county.

Alternatively, you can partner with a sustainable junk removal company, like CheckSammy, to organize a Christmas tree removal day.

When you partner with CheckSammy for Christmas tree recycling:

• We create a custom Christmas tree pick-up plan for your facility.
• Then, we pick up the trees on the designated day.
• Finally, we take them directly to composting facilities to create mulch or deliver them to a group that’s reusing them for habitats or dune rebuilding.

And that’s it. You get to recycle Christmas trees for your whole property, business, or community with little to no hassle on your part.

Best Practices for Christmas Tree Recycling

There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to recycling Christmas trees:

1. Remove Everything: All of the decorations (ornaments, tinsel, lights, etc.) need to be removed before recycling.
2. Avoid Chemical Sprays: If the tree has been sprayed with any chemicals (like fake frost), it might not be recyclable anymore.
3. Don’t Forget Other Christmas Plants: Other plant-based items, like wreaths, poinsettias, and garland, are also recyclable.

Whether you’re recycling Christmas trees yourself or working with a junk removal partner, you’ll want to educate your tenants about these best practices ahead of time.

When to Recycle Christmas Trees

So, when is the best time to schedule a bulk pick-up for your multi-family facility or town? It depends on who you ask.

According to the Catholic religion, you’re supposed to keep your tree up until January 7. While many people believe the twelve days of Christmas refer to the twelve days preceding Christmas, they actually begin on December 25. This period ends twelve days later, on January 6, aka “The Epiphany” in the Catholic religion. So, many people of the Catholic faith wait until Epiphany is over to take down their trees.

If you ask the garden experts, though, it’s all about when your tree dries out. Christmas trees typically become a fire hazard at between three and five weeks, so residents should recycle their Christmas tree before then.

It’s worth noting that if you dutifully water your tree, it might be able to last up to six weeks. However, once the needles turn brown or yellow, it’s time to toss out the tree.

When it comes to picking a date for your bulk Christmas tree recycling pick-up, you’ll want to keep the above things in mind.

An Extra Reason to Recycle Christmas Trees This Holiday Season

We’re proud to offer sustainable and customized bulk Christmas tree recycling. We work with you to create a Christmas tree recycling program that works best for your multi-family property, community, or business. Contact us now to get started.

Plus, if you choose us for your bulk Christmas tree recycling this holiday season, you’ll get to be a part of our Treecember campaign with One Tree Planted!

Let’s work together to contribute to reforestation.

(One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to global reforestation. They plant trees to restore nature and biodiversity and work to raise awareness about the importance of trees. Learn more about One Tree Planted here).