If you like to have a live Christmas tree in your home and you’re not planning on planting it in your garden, then it’s a good idea to recycle it after the holidays are over. Some municipalities have curbside collection of trees. Then, they will recycle them. In other places, it’s up to you to dispose of your Christmas tree responsibly.
Where are How to Recycle Your Christmas Tree
We believe strongly in keeping as much as we can out of landfills. It’s why we compost our food scraps, composted our pumpkins after Halloween and, at one time, would recycle our Christmas tree. No, we haven’t gotten lazy about our green ways. It’s just my daughter and I seem to be allergic to pine trees so can’t have the real thing indoors anymore. Now we have a prelit tree.
We researched which towns in Cumberland and York Counties have Christmas tree recycling. In addition, we’ve rounded up some other ideas on what you can do with a used Christmas tree after the holidays that doesn’t involve throwing it into the trash or adding it to a landfill. Finally, we’d like to highlight EcoMaine’s treecycling program and which towns participate in it. Last year, EcoMaine chipped and mulched 35 tons of trees and kept them out of landfills.
EcoMaine Treecycling
According to the EcoMaine website, the following Southern Maine town transfer stations will recycle Christmas trees after the holidays:
- Alfred
- Bridgton
- Brownfield
- Cape Elizabeth
- Casco
- Cumberland
- Eliot
- Falmouth
- Freeport
- Fryeburg
- Gorham
- Gray
- Hiram
- Kittery
- Limerick
- Lyman
- Old Orchard Beach
- Saco (trees are also collected curbside the first week of January)
- Scarborough
- South Portland (an extra truck will pick up trees curbside and bring them to the South Portland Transfer Station on Highland Ave during the first two weeks of January)
- Standish
- Waterboro
- Yarmouth
Kennebunk and Kennebunkport
According to EcoMaine, each year the Rotary Club organizes a tree recycling pick up for people to use. Residents pay a nominal fee for a tag they can leave on their tree, curbside, for volunteers to pick up. All funds raised support the Kennebunk High School Interact Club, which is affiliated with the Rotary Club. More details on the Kennebunkport town website.
Portland Curbside Tree Recycling
Trees left curbside in Portland during January will be brought to Riverside Golf Course to be chipped/mulched/composted. However, trees left curbside in Portland after February 1 will be disposed of as trash at ecomaine’s Waste-to-Energy plant, not chipped, mulched or composted. So, if it is important to you that your tree does not end up in a landfill, please make sure to put it out curbside in January.
Westbrook
According to EcoMaine, in Westbrook, a truck collects trees at the curb from December 26 – January 13, and transports them to be mulched.
Parks and farms that take Christmas trees
In addition to town transfer stations or recycling centers, there are a number of farms and parks that will take a Christmas tree off your hands. In some instances, parks may use them to stop erosion or animals on the farm will enjoy munching on your old tree.
For example, in year’s past, Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook would take trees but they stopped due to staffing shortages. We’ve reached out to the Farm to see if they might be taking trees again this year.
In 2023, you can bring your Christmas trees to the following farms or parks:
- Maine Wildlife Park, Gray (you must call 207-822-6460 before drop off)
- Payson Park, Portland (by the Little League field)
- Riverside Golf Course, Portland
Also, Maine Public Radio reported that South Portland is taking donated, used Christmas trees to line Popham Beach and help curb erosion.