What should you do with your Christmas tree? Macon & Warner Robins have an answer

With the Christmas season all wrapped up, that question is on everyone’s mind again — what should I do with my Christmas tree? As the needles keep falling, lots of people simply decide to chuck the trees in the garbage to make their lives easier.

Whether you plan on burning your tree or just tossing it in the trash, there’s a better option that’s become an annual tradition in Macon and Warner Robins.

Both cities will host their Christmas tree recycling programs Saturday, Jan. 6, to give families a nature-friendly way to get rid of their trees.

Macon’s recycling day, part of a statewide Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation program affectionately known as “Bring One For the Chipper,” runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 6 behind Luther Williams Field in downtown Macon.

Families can bring their Christmas tree, which must be unbound and free of decorations, for free in the “treecycling” program.

You can even get free tree seedlings in exchange for recycling this year’s festive fir. If you can’t make it to Luther-Williams Field this year, you can also bring the tree to a Macon-Bibb County Convenience Center for collection through Feb. 1.

Warner Robins has its own name for the recycling program, “The Great Christmas Tree Round-Up,” which will also be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 6 to take trees in Houston County. You can bring your tree to the water tower on Maple Street off Watson Boulevard just west of State Road 129.

Most of the trees are turned into mulch and used for city parks and greenery, though some are also put into nearby lakes and trees to become fish habitat.

The Bring One for the Chipper program has diverted more than six million trees from landfills across Georgia since 1991, according to its website.

If you can’t make it to Macon or Warner Robins with your shrubbery, the BOFTC program also has locations in nearby Crisp and Laurens counties.

This story was originally published December 29, 2023 at 11:21 AM.