5 ways to get rid of your Christmas tree without leaving it on the sidewalk
Gray complexion, drooping branches, thorns on the ground: two weeks after Christmas, it is high time to part with the one who lit up your home for the holidays … Your tree is waste (green), so do not throw it in the street! Here are five great ideas to enhance it.
If the idea, absurd, took you to leave your tree in front of your house, on the sidewalk, don’t! You would leave part of your New Year’s gifts there: you risk a fine of 150 euros for abandoning waste. And you will miss a good green action, rather well seen to start the year on the right foot. Because fir is green waste that is easy to recycle: crushed, it can be used as fertilizer or mulch to protect green spaces.
Some use it for firewood. Animals eat them. And in many villages in Alsace, a large cremation is traditionally organized to shed light on the start of the year. If you have a mulcher, do not hesitate to pass your tree in it. Otherwise, here’s a little guide to help you know where to drop off the fallen king for your holiday season.
The royal road: the recycling center
Like all green waste, your trees will be welcome in the specially designed dumpsters to collect them in the waste collection centers that crisscross all of Alsace.
This is the solution recommended as a priority, for example in Strasbourg, where no collection is organized by the City. You will find here the schedules of the Eurometropolis waste collection centers. “The trees must be deposited without decoration, without plastic bag, to be crushed and transformed into compost after a few months of maturation”, says one on the side of the Eurometropolis. “Fir trees placed in household waste bins or on public roads (considered as illegal dumps) will be incinerated.”
Return to sender: garden centers
If many large brands, in the wake of a famous Swedish furniture and decoration seller, now offer fir sales, some also offer to take them back. This is the case with Botanic stores: when you bring back your tree, purchased on site (receipt for proof), a voucher of ten euros is offered to you. With the assurance that your tree will be turned into compost.
Almost in front of your house: collection points
Unlike Strasbourg, the two other large towns of Alsace, Mulhouse and Colmar, have opted for the establishment of collection points where you can drop off your trees near your home. In Mulhouse, around ten enclosures, at the same locations as last year, will be in place until January 22.
In Colmar, 1,500 to 2,000 trees have been collected each year since the operation was organized. Three collection points are installed. Municipal employees are then responsible for picking them up for recyclers.
From January 8, Sélestat is also opening its collection points for two weekends.
For our animal friends
Thorns and small branches are also the feast of certain animals: goats and rabbits, for example, make short work of them, so some breeders will welcome them with pleasure to supplement their winter fodder. Just like the Mulhouse zoo, who accepts them willingly to distribute them in the enclosures. “It enriches the diet of certain herbivores, such as the takin, an animal that lives in the Chinese mountains and readily feeds on conifers., explains Alexandre Petry, animal manager at the Mulhouse zoo. But we give a little to everyone, because carnivores like to deposit their scent there, others, like lemurs or monkeys, like to rummage in the needles. “
Big bonfire
The creation of fir trees, to start the year on a festive note and shed light on the start of the new year, is a tradition usually shared by many Alsatian municipalities. The health situation has forced the greatest number to cancel it for this year 2021, in order to avoid gatherings, but the city of Barr has decided to maintain the appointment, this Saturday, January 9, from 5 p.m.
The municipality of Sundhoffen she also her cremation : the young firefighters will pick up the trees from 9 am, in front of the houses, then burn them, but this time without an audience.
The small solidarity bonus
For all these solutions, you will probably need to transport your tree first … a reflex to avoid sowing thorns everywhere: the now famous tree bag, offered for 25 years by the Handicap international association. And since this bag is fully biodegradable, made from cereals and labeled, it is in principle accepted at the recycling center with green waste because it is composted in only 4 to 8 weeks.
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