Hattiesburg urges residents to properly dispose Christmas tree

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The days are numbered for your Christmas tree and the city of Hattiesburg is urging residents to properly dispose it.

Residents have until Feb 28 to help their Christmas tree get back to its roots. Officials encourage residents to help the city go green by turning their tree into mulch.

“You can drop it off here at Highland Cemetery, Kamper park next to Cameron Field, Duncan Lake on James street, and behind Fire Station 8 next to Petro Nissan" said Andy Parker the city's Arborist.

Parker said by recycling the trees the city saves valuable landfill space and reduces illegal dumping. “We have that problem all over town, people dumping chemicals or stuff in a wooded area instead of disposing things properly" said Parker.

He continued, "...or throwing it in a creek and damn it up, where we do have problems with draining during the next thunderstorm event or something like that, this really does help us create a better environment for us.”

Parker said nature is the circle of life, all the trees the city collects will be chipped into mulch and can be used for gardening, landscaping, and more. “Just take the Christmas tree and do what its designed to do when trees die and they fall in the forest they go back into the ground and use it for us to help grow the next generation of trees" Parker said.

You can drop off your tree at any of the four locations anytime during the day.