The Lewis County Department of Public Works has announced a way to give Christmas trees and other holiday items new life by recycling them.
Volunteers will be located in the parking lot outside the gate at the Lewis County Central Transfer Station, 1411 S. Tower Ave., in Centralia, for the three weekends after Christmas — Dec. 26-Dec. 28, Jan. 2-4 and Jan. 9-11 — from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
In addition, the LeMay Mobile Shredding truck will be at the event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 3 to accept sensitive documents for shredding. Customers are permitted to bring three bags or boxes of documents they would like shredded. The paper will be recycled after the event.
The WSU Lewis County Master Recycler Composter volunteers offer the Centralia area tree recycling service for free, but will accept donations to support their community education programs throughout the year.
The volunteer group sponsors the annual tree recycling event in Centralia in conjunction with Pacific Mobile and the Lewis County Department of Public Works Solid Waste Utility Division to collect Christmas trees, which will be processed through a tub grinder later. The wood chips are used in the City of Centralia’s biosolids composting program. The volunteers diverted approximately 5.2 tons of old Christmas trees from the landfill last year.
All decorations and tinsel must be removed from the trees and wreaths.
No flocked or artificial trees or wreaths will be accepted.
Volunteers will also accept burned out holiday lights during the event.
Other holiday items that can be recycled at Lewis County transfer stations in Centralia and Morton are paper holiday cards, wrapping paper, gift boxes and corrugated cardboard boxes, aluminum cans, tin cans and glass bottles and jars. Curbside recycling programs will accept plastic bottles and jugs, paper holiday cards, wrapping paper, gift boxes, corrugated cardboard boxes, aluminum cans and tin cans.
Undecorated Christmas trees will also be accepted for free at the Morton Transfer Station, 6745 U.S. Highway 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday from Dec. 26 through Jan. 11.
The exception to this schedule is Thursday, Jan. 1, when the site will be closed in observance of the New Year’s Day holiday.
Artificial and flocked Christmas trees cannot be recycled and must be disposed of as trash. The minimum fee at both transfer stations is $20 for 340 pounds or less.
These events are funded, in part, by a Local Solid Waste Financial Assistance Grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology.
Anyone with questions regarding holiday recycling can call 360-740-1451 or email swu@lewiscountywa.gov.
