Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to think about taking down the decorations and getting rid of the evergreen in your living room.
Several options exist for Rocky View County (RVC) residents to dispose of their live Christmas trees, according to Lead Waste and Recycling Advisor Jennifer Koole. Many families may simply want to take the trees to one of RVC’s transfer sites, where they will be collected as part of the year-round branch and yard waste program.
“Some [transfer sites] put them in a bin, some may collect them in a pile, depending on how we treat them,” she said.
All trees collected at the County’s transfer sites will be chipped and reused in some form.
“Depending on the site, we have different end uses for them,” Koole said. “They could be used in some of the pathways around RVC, or the majority of them just get chipped and then used as a compost amendment at an industrial composting facility.”
Koole noted transfer sites will be closed Jan. 1.
Other residents may want to access facilities in neighbouring communities like Airdrie and Chestermere. Koole advised checking the website of any facility you plan to use to see what they are offering.
“Some places may limit the time frame in which they take Christmas trees,” she said.
Airdrie will once again collect live Christmas trees at the Eastside Recycle Depot, according to Susan Grimm, the City’s team leader with Waste and Recycling Services.
“We will have our gates open over here at the recycle depot – it’s not at the depot, it’s just directly beside, but there will be signage,” she said. “We have a bunker there where people can drive their trees over and leave them.”
The City will begin accepting Christmas trees on Boxing Day, and will continue offering the drop-off site until the end of January, Grimm said. The gates to the site will be open during the recycle depot’s regular hours, and staff will also be on hand Mondays and Tuesdays, when the depot is normally closed. Trees should not be deposited outside the gate once they are closed for the night, she noted.
Meanwhile, Chestermere will also offer a collection site for residents who live in or near the city, according to Parks Manager Rick Van Gelder. The site will be located at the boat launch at John Peake Park.
“It’s just basically a barricaded area,” he said. “They can drop them off there.”
The unmanned collection area was set up Dec. 20, Van Gelder said, and will be accessible 24/7 until the end of January.
“We do have a chipper, so we will periodically, as this program runs, go and chip all the trees up,” he said. “All the mulch that’s generated by the trees is offered to residents for their gardening needs.”
A mulch bin will be located in the recycling centre for residents to take from, Van Gelder said. The City’s Parks department will also use the mulch for plant beds, as well.
Regardless of how you dispose of your tree, all collection sites will only accept live trees that have been stripped of decorations, tinsel or tree bags.
