Ways to recycle your Christmas Tree1. Call the city of Chattanooga at 311 to have your tree picked up for recycling.2. Deliver it to the wood recycling center at 3925 N. Hawthorne St. in Chattanooga.3. Find a wood chipper and make your own garden mulch.4. Create a fish habitat by cutting up your tree and putting it in a local pond or lake.
Every year for the past three years, Barbara Haniszewski has sent her family's Christmas tree out with bang.
The tradition -- an annual Christmas tree burning on their property -- was started because she said it was hard to let go of the Christmas season, and burning the evergreen seemed to do a good job of putting a lid on the holidays.
"Now, more than 60 families are coming this year," she said. "It's probably silly, but it's fun. The kids don't like taking down the tree, and this does help them."
Most families won't be setting their trees on fire or going to extremes to get rid of them, but city officials said their are several easy ways to make good use of old Christmas trees this year.
Justin Holland, Chattanooga sanitation manager, said the Public Works Department will be doing curbside pickup for used trees and recycling them over the next month.
Residents may call the city at 311, and the tree will be picked up within five days, he said. Plastic trees also can be picked up at no cost and will be recycled.
Last year, the city was called to take 322 natural trees, he said, which were composted and ground into mulch.
"That mulch is sold on the open market for boiler fuel," Holland said.
Trees also can be delivered to the wood recycling center at 3925 N. Hawthorne St. in Chattanooga.
After burning the trees, Haniszewski said she also tries to recycle the remains. Each person who comes to the event writes on a list something he would like for Haniszewski to grow in her garden in the spring, and she uses the Christmas tree ashes in the soil.
"I think it is good fertilizer," she said. "It is nice to get a tomato out of the Christmas tree you had for Christmas."
Contact Joan Garrett at jgarrett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.