How to dispose, recycle your Christmas tree
Don’t trash the joy your live Christmas tree provided you this year.
Live Christmas tree growers and local municipalities are encouraging residents to support the environment by appropriately disposing of or recycling their trees. Many trees collected after the holiday are ground up to make mulch, which often is made available for free to area residents or composted to make nutrient-rich soil.
Various municipalities across the Oklahoma City area either are providing residents with places where they can take their used live trees or offering curbside collections.
Some Christmas tree growers also are accepting used live trees for free.
Grower accepts trees to complete ‘circle of life’
John Knight, owner of Sorghum Mill Christmas Tree and Blackberry Farm in Edmond, has been taking used live trees back from his customers for free for years.
The trees, he said, are taken to a location on the farm where they are ground to mulch, which he strategically deposits into piles that he uses only after the mulch has sufficiently composted into what he describes as “almost just dirt.”
Knight said he uses the mulch at some locations across his 85-acre farm to hold precious topsoil in place.
In areas where he plants sapling trees, he spreads mulch to create a nutrient-rich bed of soil that, with the help of growing trees’ sheared clippings and fertilizer applied twice yearly, creates a growing environment that’s “exactly what they want.”
“What we do is put those trees back into the ground as part of the circle of life,” he said.
Where can I recycle my live Christmas tree in central Oklahoma?
Depending on where you live, you can recycle live Christmas trees numerous ways as long as they are not enclosed in plastic bags and they are stripped of stands, nails and ornaments.
Choctaw
Residents are asked to set their used live trees out with their bulk trash for collection. Exceptionally long or heavy trees should be cut down to smaller sections manageable by two people.
Del City
Residents are asked to put their trees at the curb and notify the city’s sanitation department by calling 405671-2873. Speak to the city representatives and let them know you have a live Christmas tree and they will submit a work order to have the sanitation department’s workers pick the tree up, a spokesperson said.
Edmond
Residents can take trees to the north parking lot adjacent to Marilyn Williams Drive, east of the pavilion and playground at Mitch Park, by Jan. 31, where they will be chipped into mulch that residents can later collect from the same location.
Residents who can’t take their trees to Mitch Park may call 405-359-4701 between Jan. 2 and Jan. 5 to schedule curbside haul-offs between Jan. 8 and Jan. 12. Anyone taking advantage of that service is asked to have the trees at the curb and away from water meters before 7 a.m. Jan. 8.
Live trees also can be disposed of in garbage collection carts, provided they are cut to fit, or can be hauled off as part of a monthly bulk-collection visit scheduled after Jan. 2 through the city’s Utility Customer Service office (405-359-4541) for a fee of $10 per cubic yard. Residents also can take used live trees to the Edmond Transfer Station at Interstate 35 and Covell Road and dispose of them there at a cost of $5 per tree.
Commercial accounts, Christmas tree lots and other businesses also will need to dispose of their trees by dropping them off at the Mitch Park drop-off location.
Midwest City
Residents can drop off used live Christmas trees between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the city’s compost center, 7420 NE 36, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Trees also can be placed at curbside during quarterly bulk service dates, which begin in early January. For more information, call 405-739-1066.
Moore
Trees cut to 3-foot lengths and placed beside household trash carts before 7 a.m. will be picked up on normal trash service days until Jan. 12. Residents may call 405-793-5070 for additional information.
Mustang
Christmas trees and other holiday greenery can be dropped off at the Public Works facility — free of charge — located off of SW 59 Street between Czech Hall and Mustang Roads through Jan. 6 at designated times.
Bring a copy of your city of Mustang utility bill and remove all decorations from the tree. A fee will be charged for decorations left on trees and artificial trees will not be accepted.
Pick up times are:
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 27-28
8 to 11 a.m. Dec. 29
9 a.m. to noon Dec. 30
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 2-4
8 to 11 a.m. Jan. 5
9 a.m. to noon Jan. 6
Norman
Used live trees (cut in half if they are longer than 6 feet) will be collected during Norman’s regularly scheduled yard waste pickup visits, which will continue as a regular service through the winter months. Residents can call 405-329-1023 for more information.
Oklahoma City
The city’s Parks and Recreation Department will turn dropped-off natural Christmas trees into free mulch for city residents from Dec. 26 through Jan. 15 at two locations.
Tree drop-off and mulch pickup locations are planned at Will Rogers Park, 3600 Pat Murphy Drive, and Wheeler Park, 1120 S Western Ave. Residents picking up mulch need to bring their own shovels and containers. Mulch pickup continues through Jan. 15.
Oklahoma City trash customers with curbside and bulky waste services can set natural or artificial trees at the curbside for collection with other bulky waste no later than 6 a.m. on their assigned monthly bulky waste date. Be sure waste is kept clear of obstructions such as mailboxes, trees, shrubs or vehicles and do not cover water or natural gas meters.
Shawnee
Shawnee residents can place trees cut down to no more than 4 feet in length and 3 inches in diameter and bundled to no more than 50 pounds on the curb for their normal pickup day as green waste.
Yukon
Yukon will collect used live trees placed at curbs and at least 3 feet from trash carts on regular trash collection days through Jan. 12. Call 405-354-4317 for more information.
Staff writer JaNae Williams contributed.