Recycling 'fresh cut trees' is a gift to the environment

What's red, white and green all over?

Unfortunately, not Christmas.

One of the most mass-consumer holidays of the year, the Christmas holiday season produces as much as a 25 percent increase in trash as people discard the packaging, wrapping and other waste produced by their holiday cheer. One of the bulkier items commonly discarded is Christmas trees.

"If you send a Christmas tree directly to the landfill, it creates a lot of methane gas, which is about 22 percent worse of a gas than CO2," ,said Amy Norris, spokesperson for the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. "And they really don't decay actually."

Christmas trees are like any other green waste, she said. Recycling them helps return a renewable resource back to the environment.

Composting a Christmas tree minimizes the methane production, diverts waste from the landfill and creates a soil amendment that can be reused.

"There are definitely benefits to composting a Christmas tree and we encourage composting," Norris said.

Between 25 and 30 million "fresh-cut" Christmas trees are sold in the United States every year, according to the National Christmas Tree Association and CalRecyle.

But after the tree has been cut, decorated and adorned with presents, the next step is to dispose of it.

Yuba-Sutter residents have a greener option than chucking their firs, spruces and cedars in the trash.

As they do almost every year, the Boy Scouts of America will pick up residents' trees after the holiday, grind them up and compost them. The service is for a $10 donation that raises funds for the organization.

In 2009, the Boy Scouts collected 8 tons of the 22 tons of Christmas trees that Recology Yuba-Sutter diverted from the landfill. The Boy Scouts can be contacted by e-mailing scout-trees@comcast.net.

Residents are asked to remove all ornaments, tinsel, lights, nails and tree stands, which cannot be composted. Flocked trees cannot be recycled.

Recology Yuba-Sutter customers also can leave their trees to be picked up on their usual green waste collection day by cutting the trees into 3-foot sections and placing them in the green curbside toter or bundled next to the container.

Because pine needles break down slower than other yard debris and can show up in the finished compost product, whole loads of Christmas trees received at Recology Yuba-Sutter are directed to a cogeneration plant, where they are burned for electricity, according to Phil Graham, general manager of the Recology's Ostrom Road facility. If the trees end up in the landfill with other organics, the methane they and other landfill matter produce is pulled into a gas-to-energy plant that uses the fuel to generate electricity.

Ideas to green up your Christmas

BEFORE

• Take your own bags when you go shopping

• Plan shopping trips to minimize driving

• Use sustainable gift wrap (newspaper, dishtowel, reusable bag, bandana, etc.)

• Use energy-saving LED holiday lights

• Add organic and local foods to holiday feast

• Use real dishes/silverware/napkins instead of disposables

• Buy in bulk

• Make your own gifts or give consumable gifts

• Make a donation in someone's name

• Make homemade cards out of reusable materials at home

• Send e-cards instead of paper ones

• Use newspaper or other recyclable goods to cushion breakables instead of Styrofoam or bubble wrap

• Buy a potted tree and replant it after the holiday

AFTER

• Recycle your wrapping paper in the blue toter if it can be torn in half (If it can't be torn, it has too much plastic and must go in the trash)

• Compost your food waste

• Save bows and ribbons for reuse

• Recycle your holiday cards, like wrapping paper if it can be torn in half, or into e-waste if it sings

• Recycle cardboard boxes and packaging. Flatten and place in blue toter

• Save plastic foam packaging, foam peanuts, bubble wrap etc. for reuse

• Donate old toys, clothing, goods etc. to local thrift store

• Divert broken and unusable electronics into e-waste (computers, TVs, games, etc.)

• Divert dead batteries to Recology Home Hazardous Waste Facility or Batteries Plus in Yuba City

• Divert light timers into e-waste

• Divert cooking oil from deep-fried turkeys to Recology Home Hazardous Waste Facility.

CONTACT Ashley Gebb at 749-4724 or agebb@appealdemocrat.com