RACHEL M SUGA
Do you not know what to do with your Christmas tree?
Delaware Center for Horticulture and the Davey Tree Expert Company are hosting a tree shredding event called TreeCycle this Saturday. Â
DCH’s Communications Manager, Caitlyn Ridgley, says it’s a quick drive-thru experience from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.Â
“At The Delaware Center for Horticulture, we’re trying to connect people with plants and sometimes that means it’s at the end of a plant lifecycle,” says Ridgley. “So, if you have a Christmas tree, you can bring it to us and give it an extended life by having it recycled.”
RACHEL M SUGA
How does it work and why can’t you just throw your tree in the trash?
“You just drive up with your Christmas tree and you don’t even have to get out of your car,” Ridgley says. “Our team can saw the wires off, take the tree and give it to our partner Davey Tree Expert Company. They just grind your tree up in your commercial grinder into mulch.”Â
Yard waste has been banned from landfills in Delaware since 2007 – and that includes Christmas trees.Â
Ridgley says it’s harmful to the environment to have the trees in landfills because they end up being covered in plastic.Â
“When a tree goes into landfill, that material isn’t getting exposed to oxygen. It really can’t decompose,” says Ridgley.Â
However, if trees are ground into mulch, they can go back into the earth and produce nutrients for future plants and organisms that live in the soil.
The one day only event serves as a free alternative option to other resources that charge customers for the same service.Â
“You can also go to other yard waste collection sites, but those usually have a fee,” Ridgley says. “When you come to us, it’s a free service.”
While the service itself is free, donations are encouraged in order to reinvest back into DCH’s programs.
TreeCycle will be held at Delaware Center for Horticulture in Trolley Square.Â