Recycle your Christmas tree for mulch in the Charlotte area

No hurry, but when you’re ready to let your Christmas tree go, it’s easy and free to do, and even “pays it forward” — as Christmas trees are turned into mulch.

Dried out Christmas trees become increasingly flammable as days go by, so maybe we’re rushing you just a little bit.

City of Charlotte

If you are a City of Charlotte Solid Waste Services customer, just place your real Christmas tree curbside with other yard waste items. We haven’t seen any announcement from the City of Charlotte in 2023, but if it’s like previous years, Christmas tree pickup will start shortly after Christmas.

Make sure that your tree is free of any decoration.

If you need to dispose of an artificial tree, you’ll need to schedule it for bulk item collection.

Mecklenburg County

All Mecklenburg County jurisdictions collect live trees from the curbside, for chipping. So if you have yard waste picked up curbside, you should be able to put out your live tree.

Mecklenburg County grinds up the trees and turns them into mulch or includes them into compost. They accept Christmas trees all year. Here’s a video from Mecklenburg County about what happens to your Christmas tree.

In addition, you can also bring your Christmas tree to one of Mecklenburg County’s full-service drop-off centers:

Foxhole Recycling Center
17131 Lancaster Highway
Charlotte, NC 28277

North Mecklenburg Recycling Center
12300 N. Statesville Road
Huntersville, NC 28078

Hickory Grove Recycling Center
8007 Pence Road
Charlotte, NC 28215

Compost Central and Recycling Center
140 Valleydale Road
Charlotte, NC 28214

Other Cities and Counties

If you don’t live in Mecklenburg County, make sure to check with your solid waste services to see how to dispose of your Christmas tree. Many will ask you to just put your tree out, without any decoration, on your yard waste day.

Recycling Other Holiday Materials

Mecklenburg County has these guidelines for recycling holiday waste. Other counties have similar guidelines, but you might want to double check.

Do Recycle:

Plastic, glass bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard, boxboard and clean paper may go in your curbside recycling bin.
Cardboard toy and gift boxes.

Don’t Recycle:

Foil covered papers or envelopes – Remove the foil backing from the envelope and throw it in the trash. The plain paper envelope may go in the recycle bin.
Styrofoam – Be sure to separate the Styrofoam from the cardboard box that new toys are often packaged in. Toss the cardboard box in the recycle bin and throw the Styrofoam in the trash.
Batteries – Don’t put batteries in a recycling cart. You need to take old batteries to one of the County’s full-service recycling centers like Foxhole and Hickory Grove Recycling Center.
Artificial trees – Artificial trees should go in the trash. Or, consider selling or donating it.

Charlotte Region ReStore has said, in past years, that they welcome donations of gently used decorations, including artificial trees, inflatables, and more. But before dropping them off you might want to give them a call to verify, as their needs might have changed. They will pick up large objects at no charge. Request donation pick-up here.

Donate to Animals

Pigs and goats love Christmas trees! Check with your favorite farm to see if it’s accepting Christmas tree donations. We will update with a list of local farms that welcome tree donations soon, but so far we know about these two:

Ellis Farms, 1206 Confederate Road, Lincolnton, NC, would like them. They posted on Facebook to just leave them by the driveway.

True Cut Ranch of Claremont would love Christmas trees for their goats and pigs. Make sure to remove every bit of decorations and hooks. You can bring them to the farm Friday, December 29 and January 5, between 3 and 5 p.m. You can give the tree to the goats yourself and watch them explore your tree. It’s a hike up and down a hill to where the pigs are but you can bring it to them too. True Cut Ranch is at 5221 Bolick Road, Claremont, NC

A Note of Caution

What you put curbside might give potential burglars an idea of what new items are in your house, like televisions and game consoles. So, you might want to consider dropping those boxes off at one of the county’s full-service drop-off centers instead.