Here’s How to Recycle Your Christmas Tree in Colorado

One of the best parts of Christmas for many families is going out to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. A recent study choosing and collecting a Christmas tree was the 6th favorite holiday activity amongst families in Colorado.

Once the festivities start to wrap up, the tree starts to become less of a sign of Christmas joy and more of a stressor once you’ve got to get rid of it.

Luckily, recycling your Christmas tree is relatively simple. However, ServiceMaster Restore has fantastic ideas on how to use your old Christmas tree that isn’t simply tossing it out.

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Where to Recycle Your Christmas Tree in Colorado

If you’re in Denver, there are multiple different places you can drop off your tree to get it recycled with the program Treecycle.

You can drop off your tree on weekdays from January 2-31 between 8 am to 2 pm. The locations are the Cherry Creek Transfer Station, Havana Nursery, and Central Platte Campus. However, there are more locations on the weekend dates, which include January 13, January 20, and January 27.

If you’re in Fort Collins, you can go to the Larimer County Green Waste Program between December 26 through January 16 to get it recycled. Other locations include the Timberline Recycling Center in the Hard to Recycle Materials Yard section and Ewing Landscape Materials. Each tree will cost $5 to recycle.

If you don’t live in either of these cities, check your municipality’s website to find out information. Remember, trees in nearly every recycling station need to have decorations, lights, and tree stands removed beforehand. You’d be surprised how often that is ignored.

However, there are still a ton of amazing projects and ideas you can use your Christmas tree for rather than just recycling it.

You Could Use the Pine Needles of a Christmas Tree to Make Mulch

A truly environmentally friendly way to use your Christmas tree after the holiday season is using pine needles to create mulch.

While being great for the appearance of your yard, mulch is used to help insulate the soil for your plants so it doesn’t get too hot or cold. It also helps to retain moisture and helps reduce the amount of weeds in your garden.

To use pine needles as mulch, you’ll first need to let them dry out. This is because fresh pine needles are acidic, but once dried, they lose much of their acidic properties. Once they’re dry, you are free to put them in your garden. They have a nice natural look that many believe looks better than wood chip mulch.

Use the Tree as a Natural Bird Feeder

This one may take a little more work, but many people love taking their old Christmas tree outside to turn it into a bird feeder.

After taking off all of your decorations, you can create many edible decorations that birds will love. This includes popcorn or dried fruit, but you can also use oranges filled with birdseed, small bunches of grain flower, or small mesh bags of suet.

Use the Trunk of the Christmas Tree for Fun Projects

If you want to get a little more hands-on with your old Christmas tree, you can use the trunk for a ton of great ideas.

ServiceMaster Restore notes you can use it to make your coasters or as pathways for your garden. You can also use the wood slices from the stump to create a ton of great crafts for fun or for around the house.

Chop it Up To Use in Your Fire Pit

Finally, if you have yourself a fire pit, why not just chop up your old tree to give yourself some extra firewood?

Like many other evergreens, pine wood works very well for outdoor scenarios. It produces a lot of heat because of the oils and resins inside it, it's clean, and it does not produce much ash.

However, ServiceMaster Restore reminds people it does not make for good inside use. The oils inside the wood can spread unburnt gasses across the chimney that stick to the surface. It highly increases the risk of a chimney fire. However, outdoor use in a fire pit is safe and fine.