ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — The holidays are over, and for many people, that means it’s time to start thinking about what to do with the Christmas tree.
St. Peters Earth Centre is offering free Christmas tree recycling through Jan. 17.
While it was not very busy Saturday, officials said they have recycled about 200 to 300 Christmas trees so far. They said recycling usually picks up about the middle of January.
St. Peters Compost Operations Manager Elliot Schneider showed off the finished product of the recycling process.
“That is the finished, class-A compost that we produce from your Christmas trees,” said Schneider.
At the Earth Centre, Schneider is making sure recycled Christmas trees have a second life.
“Instead of those trees ending up in landfill or on roadside somewhere, we grind them up in our equipment here and that material is mixed with our compost program,” said Schneider.
Post-holiday recyclers turned-out to get rid of their no-longer-needed Christmas trees.
“There is no Planet-B,” said Will Sanford. “I just like to pay it forward. Whenever I can recycle, whether it be yard waste or plastic, aluminum, anything like that, I try to do my best to do it.”
“It’s helpful for the environment," Bud Cool added. "We do that for everything – all our leaves and everything. We bring those here all the time, just like the Christmas tree. It’s better than throwing it in the trash.”
St. Peters’ composting program has become popular with wineries in eastern Missouri.
“Wineries like it because the plants they use have grown so old and stripped the soil of so many nutrients,” Schneider said. “This allows them to put those nutrients back into the soil and start seeing those vines go back into production.”
The St. Peters Earth Centre will accept Christmas trees free of charge through Jan. 17. They are open Monday-Friday from 7:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays until from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, click here.
