Ways to recycle your Christmas tree at home | Environment

It's a couple days after Christmas, and that live tree that once smelled fresh and looked so festive is starting to dry out and wilt. You've got a few options: drop it off to be recycled or have it picked up if your city offers that service [click here for a list of places to recycle old Christmas trees], or you can recycle it yourself at home.

The Alabama Environmental Council offers the following tips for ways to reuse your Christmas tree at home:

• The most obvious form of recycling your old Christmas tree is to chip it up into mulch to used in your landscaping. Chippers can be rented from most hardware stores, but they do require special skills and often liability insurance to operate. Please do not consider this option if you have no or limited prior experience operating a wood chipper.
• Retired Christmas trees make great bird habitats in back yards. Secure the trunk of the tree about one foot down into the soil or use a tree stand and decorate the tree with bird seed, nuts, and old fruit. During the rest of the winter your retire Christmas tree will become a songbird’s paradise.   
• Old wreaths also make a excellent bird house. Just hang your retired wreaths on trees and you’ll soon see that nesting birds have made them their new homes.
• If you happen to have a lake on your property or you have  friends or family that do, old Christmas trees make excellent fish spanning habitats. Simply using a natural string or cord (Something like hemp cord works great!) tie your Christmas tree to a  large rock or brick and dump it into the lake deep enough so that they entire tree is submerged.
• Christmas tree branches and old wreaths make the perfect seasonal accent to floral arrangements, flower pots, and winter landscaping.
• Consider using needles for pine-scented potpourri.
• Christmas tree branches can also be used to control soil erosion and provide grown cover on eroding surfaces.
• Retired Christmas trees can always be cut into fire wood. Let the wood cure and dry for one year, so next Christmas you can heat your home with this years Christmas tree. When drying the wood make sure that the wood is elevated and not touching the ground to prevent rot.