A lot of people in the Northland, myself included, got real Christmas trees this year and likely put them up earlier this year than in the past because Thanksgiving was very late into November.

This was certainly the case at our house and for the first time, we had the tree up and decorated the weekend before Thanksgiving. Our tree is holding up pretty well and is not dropping a significant number of needles yet.

However, it'll likely need to be taken down before New Year's Eve. Whenever you take your real tree down, you may be wondering what to do with it since like other yard and garden waste, holiday trees are banned from landfills in Minnesota.

Thankfully, the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) has a free program to ensure your Christmas tree is properly disposed of.

Western Lake Superior Sanitary District Kicks Off Annual Treecycling Program

WLSSD announced this week that they, along with their partners, have kicked off the free holiday tree recycling program, which encourages residents to recycle their fresh-cut holiday trees at multiple drop-off locations throughout the region.

It's an important thing to do as trees contain valuable resources that can be reclaimed through Treecycling. Trees will be ground up and composted by WLSSD, saving landfill space while safely managing invasive species that may have been brought in on trees from outside the region.

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This season’s Treecycling program again offers a variety of convenient tree recycling sites, all of which are open for extended periods. Some sites are open before Christmas for residents who need to take down their trees before traveling.

Western Lake Superior Sanitary Treecycling Dates And Locations Sites

WLSSD’s Yard Waste Compost Site & Materials Recovery Center, Vonco V Landfill, and two Carlton County locations will accept trees from Saturday, December 21st through Friday, January 31st. Selected City of Duluth locations will accept trees from December 26th through January 10th.

5 Sites Accepting Trees From December 21st - January 31st:

  • WLSSD’s Yard Waste Compost Site
  • WLSSD’s Materials Recovery Center
  • Vonco V Landfill, located at 1100 W. Gary Street in Duluth
  • SAPPI Fine Paper (Cloquet, gatehouse entrance)
  • Moose Lake Compost Site (across from the City garage)

6 Sites Accepting Trees From December 26th - January 10th:

  • Chester Bowl (parking lot by playground) Lester Park (parking lot by playground)
  • Duluth Heights Community Club (parking lot across the street)
  • Woodland Community Club (lower parking lot off Woodland Ave)
  • Rose Garden (parking lot)
  • Grand Avenue Chalet at the base of Spirit Mountain (parking lot)

WLSSD reminds those recycling fresh-cut trees to remove all ornaments, lights, and tree stands before bringing trees to a Treecycling location. Flocked trees cannot be accepted.

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Also, wreaths and other evergreen decorations with wires are not recyclable and should be thrown in the trash. Holiday light strings can be recycled year-round at WLSSD’s Materials Recovery Center.

50+ Items Not Accepted At Minnesota Goodwill Stores

In the mood to clean out your closet and home? Make sure you brush up on what you can't take with you at your next Goodwill drop in Minnesota.

Gallery Credit: Lauren Wells

17 Things You Must Never Flush Down Your Toilet In Minnesota Or Wisconsin

Having to call someone for home repairs is never fun and the costs that are associated with those calls always seem more than we expect and they come at the worst times.

A common call people make is to plumbers, and many of those issues happen in the bathroom. If you have kids, who may not know exactly what goes in the toilet, there's a good chance they've flushed something down that caused problems your plunger couldn't fix.

However, you don't need kids to have those issues because everyone can get confused about what can safely be flushed down the toilet. A key thing to remember is that toilet paper breaks down in water and rarely causes a blockage, but anything else could lead to you calling a plumber for help.

Even if they don't clog your toilet, 17 specific things have a good chance of getting caught in the machinery of your city's wastewater treatment plant. Repairs are costly on this machinery so it's vital that you NOT flush the following items to protect your plumbing and to help save your city's time and resources.

Gallery Credit: David Drew

 

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