Millions of Christmas trees find a multitude of applications once their principal use is completed. Stripped of ornaments, tinsel and lights they join loose branches and cedar rope in many a recycling app.
Most municipalities have specified collection dates. Toronto, for example, alone collects some 100,000 trees each year. There are also transfer stations which accept yard waste. The collected trees are shredded and composted to find ready use in municipal parks projects. This may also be the fate of the 25 to 30 million Christmas trees sold in the U.S. every season.
About 29 million trees are sold in Germany each year. Some are burnt to generate heat and electricity. Many of the country's zoos feed discarded trees to elephants, camels, polar bears, leopards, stags, mountain goats and other animal; the trees are rich in vitamin C and other health-giving properties.
This means of disposal has not been unknown elsewhere. Unfortunately such have recently suffered some curtailment over concerns that some trees had received prior treatment with pesticides or life-prolonging anti-desiccant.
Weighted down and placed out on the ice of private fish ponds and small lakes to sink in spring, the discarded trees make an excellent refuge and feeding area for fish. Yet another use is in erosion control, usually by professionals.
Back home, if neighbours agree to donate theirs and you have newly-installed rhododendrons requiring shelter for their first few years, Christmas trees make perfect natural protection. Select three, slice off the branches from one side of each, then bind together at the top to form a teepee over the evergreen. The chopped-off branches make a great mulch over garden beds.
Yet another home suggestion, from the U.S. Wildlife Service, is to place the tree in back yard and decorate with ornithological edibles to feed to our feathered chums.
None of these appeal to you? Then eat it, suggests Michelin-starred chef at London's Ritz Hotel, chef John Williams. In the first-ever Ritz cookbook, he celebrates the Christmas tree's powerful flavours. Williams says the pine needs are fragrant and # and can add a citrusy zest to many different dishes.
