With the New Year comes lots of good intentions. Why not start with how you dispose of your holiday tree? If you’ve been thinking about trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle, you can look no further than your living room and that post-Christmas—or whatever holiday you celebrated—tree.

Rather than haul it out for the garbage collector, the best thing to do with your holiday tree is to mulch it. Chipping up your tree is a great way to create healthy, organic matter that is ideal to put on top of the soil—similar to what happens to dead trees in a natural forest. After all, it’s only trash if you throw it away. Check with your local municipality for a tree recycling location in your area and turn it into mulch. Or DIY it and borrow or rent a chipper and use the resulting mulch on your garden beds.

If you are not into the DIY model or have no place to put all of your lovely mulch, then you can hire someone to do it for you.  Luckily this service doesn’t cost a whole lot. If you are in SoCal, try California Christmas Tree Recycling at (818) 986-1300 or (310) 584-6589, serving the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. With costs starting at $25, this service can hardly be beat! A crew comes in after the holidays, removes the stand, vacuums and takes the tree to be mulched. They even donate a portion of the proceeds to TreePeople. And that’s a holiday tradition we love!