How and Where to Recycle or Dispose Your Christmas Tree in 2025 After The Holidays

How and Where to Recycle Your Christmas Tree After the Holidays

Revised December 2021 (always revised late December / early January)

If you had a live Christmas tree this year and now wonder what to do with it: recycle it (how? where?) or if not, dispose of it (how, how much?) then this page should help you. Many councils and counties have recycling services to put your old Christmas tree to new life as a wildlife sanctuary, chipped for mulch or as a bird feeder. Look below on this page for both general tips and options specific to your local area. One tip: some areas are now calling a Christmas tree a "Holiday tree". Ugh!

What Are Your Recycling Choices?

After the holidays, don't throw your natural tree away! Here are some tips on what to do with your tree after the holidays. In general, you have these options:

Local Options

Unless otherwise noted, all stands, lights, decorations, and tinsel must be removed. Artificial Christmas trees can not be recycled. They must go out with the garbage.

General tips for most haulers:

Click on the links below to find your local Christmas tree recycling options.

Specific local information is given below, where available. If no local information is provided, and you wish to add it, please use the feedback form!

England

• Greater London and Surrey
• Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire
• Northern East Anglia
• Southern East Anglia (Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire)
• East Midlands
• West Midlands
• Northeast England
• Northwest England (Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside)
• Hampshire
• Kent
• Sussex (East and West Sussex)
• Cornwall and Devon
• South West England (Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire)
• Yorkshire

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

Other tips and ideas

• Removing the tree: The best way to avoid a mess removing your tree is to place a plastic tree bag (which are available at hardware stores) underneath the stand when you set the tree up! You can hide it with a tree skirt. Then, when the holidays are done, pull the bag up around the tree, stand and all, and carry it outside. Obviously, you will want to remove the stand before recycling the tree. If some needles do scatter inside, it is better to sweep them up; as needles can clog vacuum cleaners.
• Tree Recycling / Mulching programs are a fast-growing trend in communities throughout the nation. Check below on this page or with your local department of public works for information. They chip and shred the trees, then make the mulch available for use in your garden. Your hauler will notify you of pick-up dates in your area. There are a few things you must do to make your tree ready for RECYCLING. Here are some general tips - but be sure to check with your local hauler - these are just general guidelines! To find your local hauler:
  If it is Waste Management Inc (WM), click here to find your Local WM Service Provider's Website - or click here to contact Your Local WM Customer Service Center by Phone - find the 1-800 number of your Local Customer Service Center
  If your local hauler is AW / BFI (Allied Waste) - Click here to locate the contact information for your local hauler.
• Soil erosion barriers: Some communities use Christmas trees to make effective sand and soil erosion barriers, especially at for lake and river shoreline stabilization and river delta sedimentation management (Louisiana does both).
• Fish feeders: Sunk into private fish ponds trees make excellent refuge, breeding area and feeding area for fish.
• Bird feeders: Place the Christmas tree in the garden or backgarden and use it as a bird feeder and sanctuary. Fresh orange slices or strung popcorn will attract the birds and they can sit in the branches for shelter. (Make sure all decorations, hooks, garland and tinsel strands are removed). Eventually (within a year) the branches will become brittle and you can break the tree apart by hand or chip it in a chipper. See this article from Perdue University for more information.
• Mulch: A Christmas tree is biodegradable; its branches may be removed, chipped, and used as mulch in the garden. If you have a neighbor with a chipper, see if he will chip it for you. Be sure to apply garden lime on the mulc to counter the acidity.
• Paths for Hiking Trails - some counties use the shredded trees as a free, renewable and natural path material that fits both the environment and the needs of hikers!
• Living, rooted trees: Of course, next year, you could get a rooted (ball and burlapped or containerized) tree and then plant it in your garden after Christmas (It's a good idea to pre-dig the hole in the late Fall while the soil is still soft, then plant the tree into that hole immediately after Christmas.) NOTE: Living trees have a better survival rate in mild climates, than in a northern area.
  
• Important: Never burn your Christmas tree in a fireplace or wood stove. Pines, firs and other evergreens have a high content of flammable turpentine oils. Burning the tree may contribute to creosote buildup and risk a chimney fire.