Chipping of the Greens recycling tradition returns to Jackson

JACKSON, Tenn. — Do you ever find yourself after Christmas not knowing what to do with your Christmas tree?

Chipping of the Greens is back after being cancelled last year due to COVID-19, and is helping you with that problem.

It’s a recycling tradition the City of Jackson and Keep Jackson Beautiful hosted every year before the pandemic.

“We just started it as an avenue for people to get rid of their Christmas trees and recycle them and to provide mulch for people. We just figured it was better than having them go to the landfill and have them just take up space. We can re-purpose them,” said JD Sims, the Director of Keep Jackson Beautiful.

Each tree will be chipped and bagged by volunteers to be made into mulch, free of charge to residents.

“People can just come through and get them. We limit them to about 10 bags a piece starting out, just to make sure we have enough,” Sims said. “Then they can come back later and we’ll load them up with more.”

You can drop off your tree at three different locations in Jackson, or have them picked up as well.

“North Park, Liberty Garden on the Stonebridge side by the parking lot, and the fire training center down by the Fairgrounds. They can also put in a 311 ticket through the app or go to jacksontn.gov to put in a request to have their tree picked up,” Sims said.

Starting Tuesday, you can drop off your Christmas trees to one of the three locations up until Jan. 7.

The trees will be turned into mulch on Saturday, Jan. 8 at the fire training center. That is when you can pick up your mulch as well.

In 2019, Sims says around 460 trees were donated. That created 665 bags of mulch that averaged around 18,000 pounds.

He says organizers are hoping to receive the same amount this year, if not more.

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