Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Recycled Christmas
trees have many uses

---

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

If you always wanted to know what happens to recycled Christmas trees -- they're ground up into chip mulch for landscaping parks and other green spots, such as botanical gardens.

"Lots of places like it because it's good for weed control around the bases of trees and it smells very nice," said Carrie McCabe, a "tree-cycling" committee volunteer, active in recycling for the past six years.

Bishop Museum and Leeward Community College have taken substantial amounts of chip mulch in the past.

The public can pick up mulch, too. On Oahu, the city will give out free mulch as long as it lasts at Hoomaluhia, Foster, Manoa Community Center and Wahiawa Community Botanical Gardens, Kapaa transfer station and Waimea Valley Adventure Park.

Two days were set aside for dropping off Christmas trees at recycling sites in previous years. Now it's down to one, this Saturday, because the city offers curbside green-waste collection. On green-waste collection days people can leave lawn clippings, tree trimmings and their Christmas trees for pick up, McCabe said.

Christmas tree recycling started here in 1990. The state took over what began as a purely volunteer effort, McCabe said, and "they get a lot of support from the city and county."

Christmas trees recycled and composted statewide in 1999 numbered more than 60,000, she added. "It's a great way to remind people that composting is available all the year."

Residents can compost green waste from their yards, such as hedges, as well as Christmas trees, she said.

All the sites where Christmas trees are collected are borrowed.

"We love when people participate, but we really ask that they participate within the hours that we post," McCabe said.

You can drop off your tree for recycling from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the following locations:

Kailua Intermediate School

Kaiser High School

Kapalama Elementary School

Kapiolani Community College

Kapolei Elementary School

Lincoln Elementary School

Mililani Makaunulau (16-acre) Park

Polynesian Cultural Center

University of Hawaii-Manoa (Richardson Law School)

Waianae Comprehensive Health Center

Waimea Valley Adventure Park

Waiau District Park

Note: Kaneohe District Park will NOT be a collection site this year because of a scheduling conflict.

Trees that are flocked or contain foreign objects such as tinsel, nails and ornament clips will not be accepted for recycling.

Trees may be left out for twice-a-month city curbside green-waste recycling collection service. Check the sticker on your automated refuse collection bin for your green-waste collection schedule. Trees also may be taken to city refuse convenience centers from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. For more information on these options, call 527-5335.

For recorded TreeCycling information, call 521-2447.

For information about getting mulch, check with the sites listed as mulch sites above.