Georgia foundation offers sites for Christmas tree recycling

If your Christmas tree is still up in 2026, you’re not alone. 

The folks at Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation want to help. Through its Bring One for The Chipper program, the nonprofit will give a second life to live Christmas trees. The organization has repurposed more than 6 million trees over the last 30 years. 

In 2025, Keep Georgia Beautiful collected a total of 37,342 trees from 124 locations across the state. Of those, 34,773 were recycled into mulch for playgrounds, city and county landscaping projects, and individual homes. More than 3,000 trees were sunk into lakes in order to provide fish habitats, and 6,357 were used for fuel or other uses.

“For each tree harvested, one to three seedlings are planted in its place—that makes them a renewable resource,” read a statement on the KGBF website. “Dropping it off with us after the holidays is the logical next step. We’ll transform it into mulch, fuel, or fish habitats.”

For DeKalb residents, there are four locations to drop off trees for “treecylcing.” The Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation requires that lights and ornaments be removed from the trees before drop-off.

When and where to tree-cycle in DeKalb:

• 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays (until Jan. 24), CHaRM Atlanta, 1110 Hill St. SE, Atlanta

• 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays (until Jan. 24), CHaRM DeKalb, 1225 Columbia Drive, Decatur

 • 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday (until Jan. 19), City of Chamblee Public Works, 3210 Cumberland Drive, Chamblee

• 9 a.m.-noon (no end date provided), City of Avondale Estates, Lake Street Dropoff, near Towngreen Park at the corner of Lake and Franklin Streets, Avondale Estates

• Dates and times vary, so check the website before making the trip. For more drop-off locations across metro Atlanta, visit the tree drop-off website.

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