The annual Christmas tree recycling program in northern Illinois is over. Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful, the organizer of the program, estimates they collected around 8,000 trees this year.
The nonprofit accepted trees at parks throughout Rockford and in other municipalities across northern Illinois.
When Christmas trees get thrown away and end up in a landfill, they slowly decompose in an oxygen-poor environment. That process releases methane, which is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
KNIB Executive Director Pamela Osborne said the environmental benefits of the program is a plus for northern Illinois residents.
“I think that's why it's been so popular all these years,” she said. “Because it is a good way of composting in your own yard without creating the methane or any other toxic substances.”
The program has been running since 1988. Osborne said that many residents have come to look forward to picking up the free mulch.
“We have all the individual places people can take as much of the mulch as they want," she said, "and bring it home and put it in their gardens. It decays naturally, and it fertilizes the ground.”
A local landscaping business will chip the trees into mulch later this week.
One of the main mulch pickup sites will be the Rockford Public Works office on Central Ave, and it’s first come, first served. Osborne expected the mulch to be gone by February.
