December 23, 2005

After Christmas Eco Friendly Ideas

After Christmas - Recycling Ideas
After the holidays, a real Christmas tree keeps on giving
Environmentally friendly recycling ideas

http://www.christmastrees.on.ca/consumers/recycling-ideas/22.html

* Placed in the garden or backyard, the Christmas tree will
provide winter shelter for small birds. Another good idea is to
decorate the tree again. This time hang it with special treats for
the birds: Orange slices will attract birds, as will peanut butter
spread on tree seed cones; or hang suet balls stuffed with sunflower
seeds. If you set your tree outside for the birds, remember to
careully remove all tinsel. Birds will try to eat the shiny stuff and
it will make them sick.

* A Christmas tree is biodegradable. Its branches and needles
make a good mulch in the garden, especially for plants like
rhododendrons which like an acid soil. Many cities and municipalities
gather Christmas trees on special collection days and put them
through shredders which chop them up into small pieces. The resulting
mulch is then used in the summer on the flower beds in city parks.

* Fir tree foliage can be stripped from the branches and snipped
into small pieces for stuffing into aromatic fir needle pillows for
the sofa or bedroom. Some people also use fir foliage in dresser
drawers to give clothing and blankets a fragrant aroma.

* Large quantities of used trees make effective sand and soil
erosion barriers, especially at beaches.

* Old Christmas trees stacked together in a forest provide
shelter for rabbits and other small animals.

* Sunk into fish ponds, Christmas trees make excellent refuge and
feeding areas.

* Woodworking hobbyists can make a multitude of items from the
trunk of a used Christmas tree including buttons, gavels and
candleholder.

Christmas trees are valuable for people and animals:
Christmas Trees are put through shredders to create useful mulch.
Christmas trees are used to create mulch.
Their basic production characteristics make Christmas trees an
extremely friendly farm crop, both to our environment and to people
and animals.

A broad network of roots holds the soil and a continuous ground cover
prevents surface erosion by water and wind. As a long term crop,
trees allow a natural buildup of bird and animal populations. Tree
farms provide stable refuge and feeding areas for wildlife, often
very near large urban centres, at no cost to the taxpayer. Some farms
allow visits at different times of the year. Their accessibility and
the quiet, park like surroundings make these farms very pleasing to
people. Like all plants, the conifers growing for eventual harvest as
Christmas trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they
grow and produce oxygen as a byproduct. One acre of Christmas trees
produces enough oxygen for 18 people. Without this process of
photosynthesis, life could not exist on earth.