With the holidays coming to an end, the City of Chestermere has opened a Christmas tree drop off location at John Peake Park.
The Christmas tree drop off location will be open until the end of January for 24 hours a day at the city boat launch, seven days a week for the convenience of residents.
“It’s an open area, there are no gates to go through, people will have access to it anytime they want,” said the City of Chestermere Parks Manager Rick Van Gelder.
Although the number of Christmas trees dropped off is unknown, a couple hundred are dropped off by the end of January.
Not only does appropriately disposing of Christmas trees at the drop-off area help keep Christmas trees out of landfills, but it also helps the city make mulch which residents can use.
“It is the best way. Otherwise, people will take it to landfill, and that’s just a waste. It’s recycling,” Van Gelder said.
“We chipped the trees up and turn it into a mulch, and then we offer mulch all year long to residents to use in their landscape,” he said.
The city also accepts branches year-round, which are also chipped and turned into mulch, which is available for anyone to use in gardens and for city landscapes.
“We use it throughout the city in our shrub beds and flower beds,” Van Gelder said.
By chipping branches and Christmas trees and creating mulch, the city parks department is able to save money because enough wood chips and mulch are generated for the city’s gardening purposes.
“The Christmas trees themselves don’t make that much, but because we take branches year-round, the amount of mulch that we generate on a year-round basis provides enough mulch for us to do all of the gardening,” Van Gelder said.
He added, the Christmas trees and branches also supply all the mulch the city needs on an annual basis while being able to offer it to residents for use.
