My neighbor spends his Christmas Day taking down his Christmas decorations. I know this because by sundown on Christmas Day, his Christmas tree is at the curb ready to be picked up for recycling.
I like to spend my Christmas Day relaxing with family, watching football and eating too much food. My tradition is to wait until the Epiphany, which occurs Jan. 6 this year, to take down my holiday decorations.
Then again, I don’t put up my decorations before the Halloween trick-or-treaters make their rounds!
Whenever you take down your holiday decorations, consider recycling as many holiday items as you can in order to divert waste from the landfill. Organic waste including live Christmas trees, wreaths, pine roping and holiday plants can all be composted or turned into wood chips or mulch that can be used in the garden or home landscape.
Let’s take a look at options for recycling your holiday decorations. This list is timeless and a great reminder after the holiday season ends.
Instead of placing your festive lights in recycling containers, take them to drop-off sites located around central Ohio.
Holiday lights
Those frustrating tangled balls of holiday lights should never be placed in your regular recycling container, as they will tangle around the gears of the equipment at the recycling facility, causing the facility to shut down.
Instead, take light sets you wish to discard to holiday light-set recycling drop-off sites located throughout Greater Columbus. A list of these locations can be found at recycleright.org/recycling_category/holiday-lights/.
When purchasing new light sets, consider switching to LED lights, as they will last longer and reduce your December electric bill.
Garden: Keeping everyone safe around holiday plants
For many years, I resisted a complete switch to LED holiday lights at my home because the cost for me was nearly $500. Last year, however, I found a huge supply of unsold LED light sets at a local store and made the switch for less than half that cost thanks to an after-holiday sale.
Cut trees
Several options exist to recycle or reuse your cut tree. Most municipalities in Greater Columbus collect used Christmas trees with their regular yard waste and recycling pickup.
Trees are chipped and the mulch is provided to gardeners or used in parks and other municipal facilities. Trees taller than 6 feet should be cut in half and should not be placed in recycling containers. Trees should not be in plastic bags and all decorations must be removed.
There are many other ways which cut Christmas trees can be recycled:
Mike Hogan
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Compost: Live trees can be added to compost piles when cut into small pieces. Depending on the size of your tree, the trunk will need to be sawed into smaller pieces and will take longer than the branches to decompose.
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Mulch: Use a sharp pair of pruners to cut the branches into small pieces that can be used as an insulating winter mulch on planting beds.
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Wildlife habitat: Used trees make excellent winter habitats for birds, wildlife and even beneficial insects. Simply place your used tree in the garden or yard and use it as a winter bird-feeding station and sanctuary. Suet, bird feeders and even strings of popcorn, cranberries or orange slices hung on the tree will attract birds and they will use the tree for shelter
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Firewood: Chop up your tree and use it for fuel in your fireplace or fire pit. The branches and needles will dry out quickly, but you should wait a couple of months before the trunk of the tree is dry enough to burn.
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Fish habitat: If you have a pond or lake on your property, used Christmas trees make excellent wildlife habitats when placed beneath the water. Secure the tree with rope to two cement blocks before dropping the tree into the water. Some park districts with lakes will also collect trees from consumers for this purpose.
Wreaths, roping and holly boughs
Wreathes made from live evergreens, holly boughs and pine roping can all be used as mulch or added to compost piles. Cut branches and boughs into smaller pieces and add to the compost pile or use as insulating mulch in planting beds.
Be sure to remove wire wreath frames as well as the wire or string on pine roping before cutting it into smaller pieces.
Holiday plants
Live holiday plants such as poinsettia, Christmas cactus and amaryllis can be saved for blooming again next season — if you are willing to provide care for them for the next 11 months!
After its flower drops, allow amaryllis plants to continue producing green leaves as this foliage will add energy reserves to the bulb for flowering next winter. Amaryllis plants will need several months in a cool, dark area in order to bloom again next December.
Garden: Identifying your holiday cactus
To keep a poinsettia plant, continue providing water and lots of light through the winter and spring. Then prune the plant to approximately 6 or 8 inches in early summer. To bring out the full color of the plant next December, it will need 12 hours of complete darkness each night for two months.
Keep Christmas cactuses in locations with filtered light and provide 12 hours of complete darkness each day for about six weeks before desired blooming next season.
Holiday plants including the planting media in which they are growing can also be incorporated into compost piles or added to your yard-waste recycling.
Food waste
Approximately one-third of all food produced in the United States goes to waste, and much of that food ends up taking valuable space in a landfill.
To reduce food waste, set realistic expectations for how much food is needed for holiday feasts and consider adding food waste to a compost pile or disposing of it through a commercial compost facility or service.
Food waste such as fruits, vegetables, eggshells, coffee grounds and tea bags can all be composted at home. Meat scraps, bones and products containing oils such as mayonnaise or salad dressings should not be added to your compost pile.
Paper and packaging
Most gift wrap, greeting cards and cardboard packaging can be recycled or even composted as long as the paper does not contain glitter or other nonpaper embellishments.
When adding paper to compost piles, be sure to tear it into smaller pieces to speed up the decomposition process. When adding large amounts of paper to a compost pile, add some fresh “green” material such as food waste or plant material and mix this material with the paper.
Mike Hogan is Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources and associate professor with Ohio State University Extension.
hogan.1@osu.edu
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Garden: Recycling your Christmas tree and holiday decorations