During the post-holiday season, recycling experts remind Utahns to take a few extra minutes to separate their live Christmas trees from the rest of the holiday trash and recycle them. Roy Peterman, grounds director for Brigham Young University and former president of the Recycling Coalition of Utah, said those dried-up symbols of Christmas cheer can be ground up and turned into compost for trees, shrubs, planter boxes, gardens and flower beds. Most cities have recycling programs that can properly dispose of Christmas trees, said Rusty Lundberg, a manager at the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste. But Debra Yazzie, recycling coordinator for Salt Lake County, advises Utahns to make sure all the lights and tinsel are off their trees before they send them off for the wood chipper. The compost from used Christmas trees can be used to make a rich material that locks in more moisture at a plant’s base, Peterman said. Jason Olson, Deseret Morning News Monty Georgi tosses a Christmas tree into a Dumpster placed at Windsor Park in Orem by the city so that it can be turned into mulch. read more

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