Christmas Tree Recycling Begins With Trash Pickup

Residents in cities throughout Orange County can recycle their Christmas trees by placing them at the curb on regular trash days.

Trash collectors will gladly pick up the retired holiday trees but ask that stands, ornaments and lights be removed before trees are placed outside.

Residents are urged to call their trash hauler or local city hall for specifics, including whether days set aside for trash pickups will change because of the holidays and whether there is a cutoff date for tree recycling.

In unincorporated areas, most waste haulers will follow the same schedules for tree collection as in neighboring cities.

Most trash collectors will turn the trees into biodegradable chips to be used for hiking trails, weed abatement, dust control and prevention of soil erosion.

Haulers from the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, for example, will collect trees from outside single-family homes during regularly scheduled trash pickups between Dec. 29 and Jan. 11 and deliver them to the Orange County Fairgrounds, where they will be turned into biodegradable chips.

Trees must not be taken directly to the fairgrounds, officials say.

Some haulers plan to offer the chips to residents for garden mulch.

Christmas tree recycling programs were inspired by the passage of state legislation in 1990.