Lack of participation has led to the Drumheller and District Solid Waste Association to cancel its Christmas Tree Recycling program, although Christmas trees can still be taken to the landfill.
Following last Christmas, the association put aside old Christmas trees to be chipped and recycled. The program was even promoted with a contest. Despite this, only about 20 trees, including the Town’s annual giant Christmas tree were brought to the site to be chipped.
It was simply not worth the cost of chipping to continue the program, said Tammi Nygaard, of the Drumheller and District Solid Waste Association.
“The little pile we ended up with we couldn’t do anything with so we just land filled it,” said Nygaard. “The costs associated with it far outweighed any benefits we could have gotten out of it. We had to do a whole bunch of work on the chipper, and we had to get town staff out to do the work.”
She speculates that the low participation could be due to a number of factors. Simply put, not as many people have real trees anymore, some may choose to keep them for fire wood or some just don’t bother.
"During the spring clean up, we’re still picking up Christmas trees,” said Nygaard.
For those not wanting to wait that long they can still be brought to the landfill.
“They can still bring them to us, there is no charge for them, we are just not going to be chipping them,” said Nygaard.
