Staff photo.
Shelby County accepts live Christmas trees at fourlocations, including a spot next to Chelsea City Hall,from Dec. 26 until the first few days of January.
For those looking for a spot to take their Christmas once the holidays are over, there are several options for people living along the U.S. 280 corridor.
Shelby County accepts live Christmas trees at four locations, including a spot next to Chelsea City Hall and the parking lot at Heardmont Park off Alabama 119, from Dec. 26 until the first few days of January. The county also has tree dropoff points in Alabaster and Pelham.
County workers take the trees to the Shelby County landfill, where they are ground into wood waste and used to help with erosion control on slopes on county rights-of-way, said Trey Gauntt, the county’s manager of facilities and general services.
Hoover residents who live in single-family residences also have the option to put their trees out by the road, next to their garbage bins, for pickup by Santek, the city’s waste hauler, said Robin Mangino, administrative services supervisor for the Hoover Public Works Department.
The city of Hoover also accepts Christmas trees in the parking lot on Municipal Lane directly across the street from the Hoover Lake House at 300 Municipal Lane, Mangino said. A couple of years ago, Alabama Power would pick up the trees and use them for fish habitat enhancement in lakes, but the power company no longer does that, she said.
Starting last year, the city began taking the trees to Santek’s landfill in Mt. Olive, where Santek would set them aside in a separate debris pile, Mangino said. “They generally mulch a lot of that,” she said.
The Birmingham Zoo also accepts live trees and chips them into mulch for use around the zoo. The trees are accepted there during the zoo’s normal business hours from Christmas through early January.
