After Christmas - Recycling Your Tree
After Christmas, please recycle your tree. There are many options to do this. Some garbage services have a special pick-up for Christmas trees. In many areas, the Boy Scouts collect them for a small donation. To find the nearest recycle location, call 1-800-253-2687 or log on to www.earth911.org.
If you must dispose of your tree in your normal trash, please cut it up into small pieces. These will take less space in a landfill and will decompose faster.
Under NO circumstances should you try to burn your tree in your indoor fireplace!! As young and stupid college students, my housemates and I thought this was a good way to dispose of our "Christmas shrub". Since it was too long to completely fit in the fireplace, we thought we could push it in as it burned. Bad idea! The extremely dry needles literally exploded in a big fireball when we touched a flame to the branches. Fortunately, the fire department wasn't required and singed hair and eyebrows grew back eventually. We were extremely lucky. Please learn from our near-catastrophe.