Where to recycle your Christmas trees this year

There’s no rush to take down your Christmas tree.

But when you do, there are a number of ways to recycle it.

Sedgwick County’s environmental resources department offers 22 places around the county for residents to recycle their trees.

Ten of them are in the Wichita city limits and 12 are in smaller cities surrounding Wichita.

Environmental resources director Susan Erlenwein says the county recycles about 5,000 trees a year. But she says the trend toward artificial trees means fewer natural trees are being recycled.

The locations opened Dec. 22 and will stay open until Jan. 24.

“We start it before Christmas since some people leave town and have a Christmas tree up ahead of that,” Erlenwein said.

The main problem is when people forget to take lights off a tree. Erlenwein says that means staff must take the lights off before sending the tree through the chipper.

The trees are ground into mulch, which is free and available for pickup.

Here’s a list of locations in Sedgwick County where you can recycle your trees. Other small cities like Haysville may have their own drop-off sites.

Inside Wichita

▪ Boston Park — 6655 E. Zimmerly

▪ Buffalo Park — 10209 Hardtner

▪ College Hill United Methodist Church — 2930 E. First St.

▪ Earhart Environmental Magnet School — 4401 N. Arkansas

▪ Edgemoor Park — 5815 E. Ninth St.

▪ Extension Education Center — 7001 W. 21st St.

▪ Great Plains Nature Center — 6232 E. 29th St. North

▪ Old Cowtown Museum — 1865 Museum Blvd.

▪ Osage Park — 2121 W. 31st St. South

▪ South Linwood Park — 1900 S. Hydraulic

Outside of Wichita

▪ Cheney — E. South Avenue and Garfield

▪ Clearwater — Aquatic Center parking lot

▪ Colwich — 115 N. Third St.

▪ Derby — 2801 E. James

▪ Garden Plain — at the water tower

▪ Goddard — Means Park

▪ Kechi — 107 Sioux St.

▪ Maize — 201 S. Park

▪ Mount Hope — 400 S. Thomas

▪ Mulvane — 117 E. Main St.

▪ Park City — 6801 N. Hydraulic

▪ Valley Center — 337 S. Meridian

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 1:16 PM with the headline "Where to recycle your Christmas trees this year."