Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Omaha.com
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Drop-off sites are open in the metropolitan area for recycling once-live Christmas trees.
The sites will be open daily through Jan. 15 during daylight hours. There is no charge to drop off trees.
Sponsors are the City of Omaha, Sarpy County, the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District, Rotary Clubs and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Master Gardeners Program.
Volunteers from the Rotary Clubs of Omaha and the Douglas-Sarpy Master Gardeners will be on hand at some of the major sites to help unload trees this weekend and next, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
If you drop off a tree at another time, throw it on the pile, not beside it, to ensure room for others who will drop off trees, too.
All lights, ornaments, tinsel, wire, nails, steel or wooden stands, and plastic tree bags have to be removed from the trees before they are dropped off. Wreaths and evergreen roping will not be accepted. Flocked trees, however, are OK.
The sites:
Tranquility Park, 120th Street and West Maple Road; north lot of soccer complex
Brown Park, U Street between 15th and 18th Streets
Orchard Park, 66th Street north of Hartman Avenue (57 blocks north of Dodge Street)
F Street Football Field, F Street east of 156th Street; parking lot east of field
Ta Ha Zouka Park, 20801 Elkhorn Drive; parking lot behind the Chamber of Commerce
Kelly West Park, 87th Street and Park View Boulevard
Wehrspann Lake, Highway 370 between Interstate 80 and 168th Street; Wildlife Management Area south parking lot
Old Sarpy County Landfill in Bellevue, 8902 Cedar Island Road
Papillion Senior Center, 1001 Limerick Road
Papio Bay, 815 E. Halleck St.
La Vista Sports Complex, 66th Street, two blocks south of Harrison Street
Hughes Mulch Products, 3211 Keystone Drive; open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday only
Curbside collection also is an option for discarded Christmas trees. In Omaha, Christmas trees must be prepared as yard waste: cut to 4-foot lengths and bundled with string or twine.
Council Bluffs residents also may take trees to the Council Bluffs Recycling Center at no charge through the end of January. Nonresidents and commercial haulers will be charged $5 per tree or $20 per ton. To use the recycling center, the same tree preparations that Omaha requires for curbside collection apply in Council Bluffs.
The tree curbside collection in Council Bluffs will take place the week of Jan. 7-11, on the same day as the regular collection.
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