Recent Stories with tag trash

I like to keep the Christmas tree up until I have an epiphany sometime around January 6 ("Hey, this thing is brown and dead and shedding needles everywhere!"). But I realize that in our modern world things happen on a faster schedule. For many people, Christmas is over December 26, and that tree has got to go.

Happily for the environment, in Seattle and all throughout King County you can "tree-cycle," if you haven't flocked it and are not too lazy to remove tinsel and other ornamentation. King County guidelines look less strict than Seattle (they won't accept trees over eight feet). In Seattle, we're more precise about our Christmas tree recycling:

The tree must be less than 4 inches in diameter, and trimmed to 6 feet tall and 4 feet across. Clean trees can also be taken to the Transfer Station for free. If tree is flocked, it must be disposed of as garbage: Cut into pieces in your garbage can, or take to the Transfer Station.

Artificial trees, of course, are not included in the recycling program: "Artificial trees will last for six years in your home, but for centuries in a landfill."