Holidays over, tree recycling alternatives

Yummy!

Nice cushion

Zoo and domestic animals may like these trees to eat or play with, and there are other uses. 

Millions of Christmas trees are purchased and then thrown away each year, but not all are dumped along with the trash. Some of them are used in inventive, economical and weird ways.

Among the 25 to 30 million real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. each year, according to the National Christmas Tree Association, some are eaten by goats and others are used to support ocean shores. 

.... Oceanside communities like those along the New Jersey Shore use old Christmas to restore sand dunes that have been destroyed by weather or construction.  ABC News/"Good Morning America/Susanna Kim, 1/8/14.  "Wacky and wise ways to get rid of your Christmas Tree." Read article. 

Christmas tree next

  ....   "After Christmas wrapped up an Alameda tree lot donated a truckload of trees for the animals to enjoy.  .... Nicky Mora with the Oakland Zoo says the elephants can eat the whole tree. "You could hear the sounds of branches and trunks cracking today as they munched on the trees," she said.  ....  At the meerkat exhibit, zookeepers hid mealworms inside the trees for the animals to find.Some animals, including squirrel monkeys, treated the trees like furniture in their exhibits." My Fox Atlanta/Leslie Dyste, web producer/KTVU/Oakland, CA 1/8/14. "Oakland Zoo animals 'recycle' Christmas trees."  Read more. 

Related Simon's Cat look back - holidays, Christmas trees, Santa) videos:  Santa Claws, 2:13 minutes,  Catnip (a Christmas special, 2:17 minutes. Then there was that Santa present:  Christmas presence (part 1), 1:43 minutes.  Christmas presence (part 2), 1:08 minutes.  Refernece - Wikipedia, Simon's Cat, by animator Simon Tolfield (UK). 

Note photographs:   Lion laying on tree from The Independent News (UK) article/Kiran Moodley,1/6/15. Goat eating tree from BBC News photographs (UK), 1/11/15.  Simon's Cat doing what he does best by Simon Tolfield (UK) from Katherine Blower 1309295 archive blog. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh