Recycled Christmas Trees Help Beautify Triad Communities

Recycled Christmas Trees Help Beautify Triad Communities

December 30, 2011 | Keri Brown

In Guilford County, residents can drop off their Christmas trees through January 15 at three sites: The Guilford County Prison Farm, Piedmont Triad Farmers Market and Tabernacle United Methodist Church.
Susan Heim, Environmental Services Coordinator for Guilford County said the trees will be chipped into mulch to help beautify parks and other sites throughout the county.

"In Guilford County, we have several recently developed parks that we are using mulch to build up the walking and riding trails. In the past, during the 2009-2010 holiday season, which was our biggest one, we produced almost 110 tons of mulch that year and that helped us develop some of that new park land," said Heim.
City officials in Winston-Salem are also collecting Christmas trees after the holiday at several places including Crawford Park, Hanes Park and the Old Town Recreation Center. The trees will also be used to make mulch for its parks and roadways.
All lights, decorations, stands and covers must be removed from the trees. Some communities including High Point and Greensboro are also collecting trees curbside with your trash.
In July of this year, it became illegal in North Carolina to throw away computers, computer equipment and televisions into the trash. The state has set up a state wide recycling program through electronic manufacturers like Sony and Hewlett Packard to put in infrastructure that will allow the state to recycle those items.
Heim said the post-holidays are also a good time to recycle electronic toys, cell phones and other e-waste.
"We have got all kinds of recycling processors and manufacturers that are looking for those types of materials to put into the manufacturing stream, so by recycling this stuff we save the landfill space, we take all of those valuable materials like the plastics and the steel and a lot of these circuit boards also contain things like gold and platinum. It helps us economically in the Carolinas, it helps us to keep jobs here with those companies that process those kinds of materials, and it makes the manufacturing process cheaper," said Heim.
Heim said Guilford County's electronic recycling program is the second largest in the state, second only to Wake County. Last year, more than 800 tons of unwanted electronics were recycled there.