The presents are opened, the space beneath the tree is bare — now what?
Much of the post-holiday debris will end up in the garbage can.
“Annually, Americans discard an estimated 38,000 miles of ribbon, or enough to wrap around the planet (with some left for a bow); $11 billion worth of packing material; and 15 million used Christmas trees,” according to the National Environmental Education Foundation. “When this holiday material is discarded it can be headed to landfills, where, far from making things merry and bright, it undergoes bacterial decomposition, which produces ‘landfill gas:’ a mixture of predominantly greenhouse gases including methane, carbon dioxide, and water vapor.”
However, Longmont residents have options to keep the remnants of their holiday celebrations out of the landfill, starting with the tree itself.
Trees can be taken to drop-off locations four city parks — Roosevelt, Garden Acres, Kanemoto and Centennial, which are open today through Jan. 6, as well as the city’s Waste Diversion Center, 140 Martin St. Most trees collected will be ground into mulch that is available to residents year-round via self-service at the Waste Diversion Center.
“We typically collect about 2,000 Christmas trees from the four satellite drop-off locations each year. We don’t track the number of Christmas trees brought to the Waste Diversion Center (WDC), but the amount of Christmas trees ground to mulch would pale in comparison to the total material ground per year from residents bringing tree limbs, leaves and yard wastes,” Waste Services Manager Charles Kamenides said via email. “In 2020 we generated a total of 6,325 tons of mulch from all material brought to the WDC.”
Some recycled Christmas trees also could be used in local waterways to improve fish habitat and the city is working with a Colorado Parks and Wildlife fisheries biologist to determine locations where there is a need for such habitat improvements, Land Program Administrator Daniel Wolford said in an email.
Before dropping off trees, make sure to remove all decorations and lights.
Recycling gift wrapping is a bit more complex than finding new life for trees, mostly because of the makeup of the paper.
Wrapping paper is recyclable, but is often high in clay and needs to be kept separate from other recycled paper, Kamenides said. Residents are asked to keep wrapping paper out of curbside recycling bins, but they can take it to special collection bins at the Waste Diversion Center.
Foil, metallic and plastic wrappings cannot be recycled at all, nor can ribbons and bows and should be placed in the trash or saved for another use, Kamenides said.
The 6,411 subscribers to curbside composting, however, can place non-metallic wrapping paper along with tissue paper and cardboard in their bins, he said.
There also is a bin for cardboard at the Waste Diversion Center.
The only foam that is recyclable is white block, according to the city’s holiday recycling page on its website. Foam sheets, wrapping and “peanuts,” as well as food-grade foam should be thrown in the trash or saved for future use, according to the page.
Holiday lights that have lost their glow also can be kept out of the trash. A bin to collect them will be available at the Waste Diversion Center through Jan. 6. Before dropping them off, residents are asked to wrap light strings into balls.
For more information on holiday recycling, check out the city’s Holiday Recycling Guide, which can be viewed here.
