It was a festive holiday season full of gifts, goodwill and good eating. If they haven’t already, the lights will soon come down, along with the Christmas tree.

What can you do with that dried up tree? Recycling is easy.

Mountain Community residents can still recycle their Christmas trees at the Lebec transfer site drop-off location until January 10, 2016.

Please tarp and secure your load properly. Don’t forget to remove all ornaments, lights, and the tree stand prior to recycling the tree.

About 25 to 30 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. every year. After Christmas, thousands of Christmas trees will be sliced, minced and diced into a rich mulch to be used by city parks, schoolyards and roadways. Christmas trees are chipped and shredded into mulch which is used for water conservation and weed control in parks, as ground padding in playgrounds, as an erosion and dust control medium on hiking trails and bridle paths, as additives in composting for landscaping, fertilizers and as alternative fuel in “biomass” co-generation facilities.

“Kern County has been recycling Christmas trees for over 23 years,” says Nancy Ewert, Assistant Director of the Kern County Public Works Department. See KernCountyWaste.com for more details.

This is part of the January 8, 2016 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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