After the holiday season is over, those of you with real, live Christmas trees may be wondering what you can do with it besides just putting it out with the trash. Here are some great examples of how some cities are reusing their evergreens, why purchasing a live tree is the 'greener' choice, and some tips on recycling your tree.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) an estimated 500,000 acres of land in the U.S. is devoted to growing Christmas trees and from 30,000,000 to 35,000,000 of them are cut and sold each year during the holiday season. Luckily, many areas in North America are finding ways to recycle and reuse their trees to give back to the environment.

Many cities have established tree recycling programs, where people can drop off or have their trees picked up and then they're sent to be turned into mulch. The nutrient-rich mulch is then used in public parks and gardens for beautification projects, and is also available for use in peoples' individual yards. Some cities even use it for open space projects to prevent weed growth and soil erosion.

"A pharmaceutical company in Toronto, Ontario, plans to make an influenza medicine with the shikimic acid extracted from the needles of discarded Christmas Trees," reports the NCTA.

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, conducts an annual Christmas Tree drop to help with marsh restoration projects. Since the program was created in 1986, it has created 8 miles worth of tree fences and restored 250 to 300 acres of marshland. These tree fences greatly helped during Hurricane Katrina. "They worked well and really protected the shoreline behind them," said Marnie Winter, director of the Jefferson Parish Department of Environmental Affairs. "You can see where there weren't cribs (fence-like rows of Christmas Trees at the marsh's edge) the marsh really took a beating."

In Tomahawk, Wisconsin, the Packaging Corporation of America, a paper mill plant, hires a company to grind up recycled Christmas Trees so that they can use the wood pulp to power their mill. "We use it as a boiler fuel to power our pulp and paper mill plant," says John Piotrowski, environmental manager at PCA.

For those of you who bought live Christmas trees this year, I applaud you because going for the real thing is a much greener choice than purchasing a fake tree. Yes, it involves cutting down millions of trees, but the forests from which those trees were grown are sustainably managed and are renewable resources. These tree farms also contribute to the air quality and are usually locally grown and sold.

Though fake trees can be reused, they're typically made from PVC which can be a potentially hazardous source of lead. According to the Children's Health Environmental Coalition, "The manufacture of PVC creates and disperses dioxins, which include the most toxic man-made chemical known. Released into air or water, dioxins enter the food chain, where they accumulate in fatty tissues of animals and humans, a potential risk for causing cancer, damaging immune functions and impairing children's development."

The majority of fake trees are also very flammable. The NCTA reports: "In 2004, the Farmington Hills Fire Department in metropolitan Detroit conducted a test of how real and artificial trees react in a house fire. The artificial tree, which was advertised as “flame retardant,” did resist the flames for an amount of time, but then was engulfed in flames and projected significant heat and toxic smoke, containing hydrogen chloride gas and dioxin." (Pictured at right.)

The fresh tree that was tested for flammability, on the other hand, remained mostly intact after being set on fire, most of it remaining green and untouched by the flames (because it's harder to burn a living tree than it is to burn a dead or fake one).

And my last argument for fresh vs. fake: Which do you think will break down in a landfill and which will remain there for hundreds of years? I rest my case.

You may be wondering: "What can I do with my tree besides throw it away after I take it down?" This article from Greenwala, "10 Ways to Repurpose Your Christmas Tree", has some great ideas, like using the branches in your yard as natural fence support for your plants or as ornamental pieces, turning your leftover tree into mulch for your yard, and even donating it to a local shoreline, river, ocean or lake erosion prevention program. Read the rest of the post for more great ideas.

I hope this post has inspired you to think green by buying green (a real tree, that is) for the holiday season from now on, and showed you ways to recycle and reuse it, giving a post-holiday gift back to the Earth.

Happy Holidays from CL Green!