Here are ways to recycle your holiday trees and decorations

My neighbor spends Christmas Day taking down his Christmas decorations. I know this because as the sun sets 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. My tradition is to wait until Epiphany, which is January 6 this year, to take down my Christmas decorations.

Then again, I don’t put up my decorations until the Halloween candy makes its rounds!

Whenever you take down your Christmas decorations, consider recycling as many Christmas items as possible to divert waste from the landfill. Organic waste, including live Christmas trees, wreaths, pine cords and Christmas plants, can all be composted or turned into wood chips or mulch that can be used in the garden or home landscaping. House.

Let’s take a look at the options for recycling your Christmas decorations. This list is timeless and a great reminder after the holiday season is over.

Christmas lights

These frustrating, tangled Christmas light balls should never be placed in your regular recycling container, as they will become tangled around the gears of the recycling facility’s equipment, causing the facility to shut down.

Instead, take the lights you want to throw away to the holiday light 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 lighting sets, consider upgrading to LED lights, as they will last longer and reduce your December electricity bill.

Garden: Keeping everyone safe around holiday plants

For many years, I resisted a complete switch to LED Christmas lights in my home because the cost to me was almost $500. Last year, however, I found a huge amount of unsold LED light sets at a local store and made the switch for less than half that price thanks to a post-holiday sale.

Cutting down trees

Several options exist for recycling or reusing your cut tree. Most municipalities in Greater Columbus collect used Christmas trees with their regular yard waste and recycling collection.

The trees are chipped and the mulch is provided to gardeners or used in parks and other municipal facilities. Trees taller than 6 feet must be cut in half and should not be placed in recycling containers. Trees should not be placed in plastic bags and all decorations should be removed.

There are many other ways to recycle cut Christmas trees:

• 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 to decompose than the branches.

• Mulch: Use a pair of sharp pruning shears to cut branches into small pieces that can be used as insulating winter mulch on flower beds.

• Wildlife habitat: The trees used provide 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 hanging from the tree will attract birds and they will use the tree for shelter.

• Firewood: Cut down your tree and use it as fuel in your fireplace or fireplace. The branches and needles will dry out quickly, but you will have to wait a few months before the tree trunk is dry enough to burn.

• Fish habitat: If you have a pond or lake on your property, used Christmas trees make excellent wildlife habitats when placed underwater. Secure the tree with rope to two cement blocks before dropping it into the water. Some park districts with lakes will also collect trees from consumers for this purpose.

Wreaths, ropes and holly branches

Wreaths made from live evergreens, holly branches and pine ropes can all be used as mulch or added to compost piles. Cut the branches and twigs into small pieces and add them to the compost pile or use them as insulating mulch in flower beds.

Be sure to remove the wire wreath frames as well as the wire or twine from the pine rope before cutting it into smaller pieces.

Holiday Plants

Live holiday plants such as poinsettia, Christmas cactus, and amaryllis can be saved to bloom again next season – if you’re willing to care for them for the next 11 months!

After the flowers drop, 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 place to bloom again next December.

Garden: Identifying Your Holiday Cactus

To maintain a poinsettia plant, continue to provide it with water and plenty of light throughout the winter and spring. Then prune the plant back to about 6 or 8 inches in early summer. To bring out all the colors of the plant next December, it will need 12 hours of total darkness every night for two months.

Keep Christmas cacti in locations with filtered light and provide 12 hours of complete darkness each day for about six weeks before desired blooms next season.

Holiday plants, including the planting media they grow in, can also be incorporated into compost piles or added to your yard waste recycling.

Food waste

About a third of all food produced in the United States is wasted, and much of that food ends up taking up valuable space in landfills.

To reduce food waste, set realistic expectations for the amount of food needed for the holiday season and consider adding food waste to a compost pile or disposing of it through a composting facility or service commercial.

Food waste such as fruit, vegetables, egg shells, coffee grounds and tea bags can all be composted at home. Meat scraps, bones, and products containing oils like 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 non-paper decorations.

When adding paper to compost piles, be sure to tear it into smaller pieces to speed up the decomposition process. When adding large quantities of paper to a compost pile, add fresh “green” materials such as food scraps or plant matter and mix these materials with the paper.

Mike Hogan is an Extension, agriculture and natural resources educator and associate professor at Ohio State University Extension.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Garden: Recycling Your Christmas Tree and Christmas Decorations