Go green for the holidays: City offers options for Christmas tree recycling

The City of San Marcos invites San Marcans to go green for the New Year by recycling their Christmas trees this holiday season.

There are several options for recycling your Christmas tree this year, according to the city.

The City of San Marcos began accepting real Christmas tree dropoffs on Monday and will continue accepting drop-offs until Jan. 12.

Trees must be free of all decorations, tinsel, and unnatural material. Residents can drop the trees off at the Grant Harris Building on 401 E. Hopkins St. Trees will be mulched onsite.

The City of San Marcos also hosts a monthly Brush Drop-Off, open to San Marcos Residential Garbage customers on the second Saturday of every month. The next Brush Drop-Off is Jan. 8.

For customers who can’t make the trip, the City of San Marcos offers curbside pickup. Residential garbage customers are asked to chop their trees up before disposing of the pieces in their green waste carts.

Green Guy Recycling, located at 937 Hwy 80, accepts artificial Christmas trees, along with broken string lights, old electronics, and excess recyclables. Residents can bring recyclables to the 24/7 drop-off. Accepted materials are glass, metal, plastic, cardboard, paper, and more.

Follow the link for a full list of accepted materials: https://www. greenguyrecycling.com/ what-we-accept.

For more information, contact Green Guy Recycling at 512-3533266.

San Marcos Neighborhood Enhancement's Resource Recovery Division offers the following tips for re-using and recycling other holiday materials, such as wrapping paper, boxes, and toys.

Re-use

• Wrapping paper, gift bags, and tissue paper are not recyclable. Due to the dyes, glitter, wax, etc. If they are in good condition they can be reused for next year.

• Didn’t like the gift you received this year? Save it to re-gift to someone else! Easy guilt-free way to share your unwanted presents.

• Have a bunch of leftovers? Try creating new dishes from your leftover turkey and stuffing. Check out this website for recipe ideas: https://insanelygoodrecipes. com/christmas-leftovers- recipes/.

Recycle

• Boxes can be recycled, just break them down and place them in the recycle cart. If you have too many boxes, you can place broken down boxes into a box and set it next to your recycle bin to be serviced. Up to three boxes. Remember: the extra boxes must be able to fit inside the cart.

• Getting rid of last year’s toys and electronics that are in good condition? Donate them. We encourage you to give new life to your old items by giving them to people in need.

To learn more about sustainable holiday cleanup, contact Resource Recovery at 512-393-8407 or recyclinginfo@sanmarcostx. gov.

zgottlieb @sanmarcosrecord.com