With Christmas over, what to do with this tree? Try 'treecycling'

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A live Christmas tree has its charm, but disposing of it at season's end can be a dilemma.

It happens every year: You loved the glow and sparkle of your Christmas tree, but now you’re  asking: "What am I supposed to do with this tree in my house?"

As the Christmas season winds down, affiliates of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation are providing ways to recycle your live Christmas tree.

The statewide group has about 200 sites around the state set aside for what they call "treecycling." That mostly means chipping and mulching. Asha Ellen of member group Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful said there are really good reasons to treecycle. 

"Well, the No. 1 thing is we want to definitely protect and preserve our landfills; our landfills are already overflowing," Ellen said.

Ellen said not every tree dropped will find a second life as safe place to fall on a playground. Sometimes trees are sunk into lakes for fish habitat, too.

All the Keep Georgia Beautiful treecyling sites will mulch together on Jan. 7 in their annual Bring One For The Chipper event. Most member groups will still take trees before and after that.