Cookeville Collecting Christmas Trees

Cookeville’s Public Works Department will be collecting Christmas trees after the holidays.

Public Works Director Mary Beth Elrod said that the city’s brush trucks looking for 6-8 feet length trees to recycle for environmental purposes. Elrod said if you do not want to wait for the city’s brush trucks, you will be able to take your tree down to the brush site on Jefferson Avenue.

“Customers put them out at the curb, not in the street, not blocking anything,” Elrod said. “Not around any mailboxes or obstructions or meters or fire hydrants and our brush trucks will come around and collect those and then those will go to our mulch site on Jackson.”

Elrod said recycling Christmas trees brings significant benefits, not only for the environment but also for the local community. She noted that the process helps create valuable resources, including local wildlife habitats.

“So these trees will be reused either as fish habitats or for some kind of nature purpose at TWRA (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency), ” Elrod said. “Or we will be grinding those into usable mulch that customers can come and pick up for free, the mulch in the springtime or any time of year for gardening or landscaping purposes.”

For residents with trees taller than eight feet, Elrod said that they need to contact the city for pickup, as those trees fall outside the standard regulations. For those who use artificial trees, no need to worry.

“Artificial Christmas trees do not need to go into the regular trash, ” Elrod said. “The first and third Tuesday of every month we have a special pickup of household items that are too large or too bulky for your regular trash. That is where your artificial Christmas trees would go. You do need to call the public works office with your name and address and state what bulky item you are leaving.”