Recycle sites
Hamilton County’s recycling centers, location and hours: Standifer Gap Recycling Center 7625 Standifer Gap Road, 423-855-6125 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Middle Valley Recycling Center 1868 Crabtree Road, Hixson, 423-843-9317 Monday & Wednesday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Sequoyah Recycling Center 9525 Lovell Road, Soddy-Daisy, 423-842-2391 Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Highway 58 Recycling Center 5414 Highway 58, 423-326-0992 Monday and Wednesday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m-4 p.m. Red Bank Recycling Center 4851-B Dayton Blvd., 423-876-2010 Tuesday and Thursday. 9 a.m-5 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Some of nearly a dozen Christmas trees are seen Monday that have been dropped off at Hamilton County’s Standifer Gap Recycling Center.The trees will be turned into mulch for area walking trails, landscaping and landfill ground cover. Hamilton County residents are also welcome to pick up the mulch for personal use. Hamilton County is accepting Christmas trees at all five of its recycling centers at any hour of the day through the month of January.
“This is easy and simple,” said Mike Ingram who mans the Standifer Gap Recycling Center. “As long as you have the wherewithal to bring it in here and toss it off, this is the way to go.”
The county started its tree recycling program in 2001. It grinds the trees and allows Hamilton County residents to get free mulch. The county also uses the mulch for walking trails, landscaping and landfill ground cover.
Since 1998 Hamilton County Recycling Centers have diverted more than 49 million pounds from the landfill, wrote county communication’s manager Mike Dunne in an email Monday.
Everybody has heard why it’s important to recycle, but Ingram said he wishes more people did it.
He still sees trees in garbage piles that end up in landfills, he said. And trees dumped on public property could dry out to become a fire danger.
Sarah Copeland, who visited the Standifer Gap Recycling Center on Monday, worries about filling up landfills.
“I don’t want to live on or next to a landfill. And you don’t want your kids going to school next to a landfill,” said Copeland. “But when one landfill fills up they’re just going to build another one.”
Seventeen trees were on the ground just outside the fence at the Standifer Gap recycling center by early Monday afternoon. Ingram expects the pace to increase.
Hamilton County is not the only place in the U.S. that is encouraging Christmas tree recycling.
Farmer and longtime volunteer firefighter Vince Thomas uses his 40 goats to chew up Christmas trees for residents in Reno Nev.
Americans generated about 251 million tons of trash and recycled and composted almost 87 million tons of it in 2012. On average Americans have a 34.5 percent recycling rate, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.