If you learned one thing from last week’s America Recycles Day, it’s that recycling goes well beyond what you can fit in your recycling bin every week. With this in mind, Earth 911 and the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) encourage you to recycle your real Christmas tree this year.

You may be asking, isn’t it more eco-friendly to buy an artificial tree that can be reused so you don’t even need to dispose of it? Not according to this fact sheet by the NCTA, which breaks down fake vs. real trees in everything from origin to production to ingredients

For instance, did you know that artificial trees contain lead to produce the PVC material in the needles? This can be poisonous to children if inhaled. Also, no matter how many years you use an artificial tree, eventually it has to be disposed of and ends up in landfills.

Another positive to buying a real tree is that there are nearly 500,000 acres of Christmas trees in the United States, with each acre providing the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people. When one tree is cut down, three seedlings are planted the following year to replace it, the ultimate carbon offset.

So now that you see the importance of buying real trees, let’s talk about why you should recycle these trees. For starters, a national NCTA survey reveals that almost 93 percent of consumers who use a farm-grown Christmas tree already recycle their trees in community programs, so why be in the minority?

In addition, recycled Christmas trees have many environmental purposes once you’ve dropped them off at an authorized recycler. The trees can be ground into chips, which are then used for mulch and other natural purposes.

The trees can also be used in their entirety to serve purposes such as beachfront erosion prevention, shoreline stabilization and wildlife/water habitats. By comparison, the only benefit to trashing your tree is that you’ll give a temporary pine fresh smell to a landfill.

To find the nearest Christmas tree recycling program in your area, use Earth 911’s search bar at the top of this page. For more information on the right kind of Christmas tree for you, visit the NCTA Web site.