Through organizing a yearly Christmas tree recycling event, SAVE generates funds and promotes local eco-friendly practices.
This year’s occasion took place on January 4-5 at Franconia Community Park.
Annualy, SAVE offers an event in the community in which people can drop off their Christmas trees at a local park, creating benefits for the environment and making the tree removal process easier.
SAVE officer Selah Fink said some of those benefits happen through the process of gathering the Christmas trees.
“When a car comes to the drop off, we pull the tree out of their vehicle and place it into a line up of other trees,” Fink said. “For the next week they get piled up and then move on to the next step.”
The collection process of the trees and what is recycled from them is what makes this even very eco-friendly.
“The trees then get chipped into wood chips for the trails nearby,” Fink said. “It is very helpful and a good way to reuse the trees.”
SAVE advisor Ian Burley said it is important to recycle Christmas trees.
“It keeps [trees] out of the landfill, which reduces the amount of trash going into them,” Burley said. “Keeping around 350 trees that are big in size out of the trash saves a lot of space for waste.”
The reusable aspect of the trees also makes it very environmentally friendly.
“Not only are you keeping the trees out of the landfills, where they will take up space and release carbon, you’re repurposing the trees as mulch,” Burley said.
Along with the tree recycling, SAVE also collected donations at the event, which will go toward helping to fund their club.
“All of our donations go towards the greenhouse,” Fink said. “It keeps it running especially during the winter months because of how cold it gets.”
Burley is pleased with the output of donations this year.
“We collected about $900 in donations, which is high,” Burley said.
Members feel as though this event had a great turnout this year.
“It was cold, but there was a good turnout,” Save member Grace Wisser said.
Additionally, the act of community service creates positive feelings for participants.
For Burley, the feeling he gets from helping out is his favorite part of events like these.
“It’s fulfilling,” Burley said.