WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — Wake County is keeping the Christmas spirit alive after the holidays. 

The Happy Trails Christmas Tree Recycling program converts real Christmas trees into mulch that is used to line walking and hiking trails at county parks. 

What You Need To Know

  • Wake County Parks is turning Christmas trees into mulch to line park trails 

  • Drop-off locations are open until January 22

  • The county has kept 50,000 Christmas trees out of landfills 

  • The trees must be undecorated 

"Instead of sending all these trees to the landfill, where it's going to take up a lot of space and time to decompose, instead we can directly put them back on our trails and back to the Earth," said Kelly Hendrix, assistant manager of education for Wake County Parks. 

In order to do this, the county needs people to recycle their undecorated trees. The goal of the environmental initiative is to keep decomposable trees out of landfills.  

Since the program started more than a decade ago, the county has kept 50,000 Christmas trees from the landfill. 

In 2022, the county recycled 5,732 trees that were converted into 102 tons of mulch. The mulch covered five miles of trails at Blue Jay Point Park as well as the county's other 10 parks. 

"So, as you can imagine, this is quite a large amount of trails and mileage that we cover with this mulch," said Hendrix. 

Hendrix says they invite volunteers, including Boy Scout troops, to help distribute the mulch after collection. 

Christmas trees are being collected at eight different locations through January 22. 

Here is where you can drop your undecorated tree from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., seven days a week:

Wake County Parks will accept trees from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m, seven days a week:

It is important to note that the parks system is not collecting any additional greenery other than the Christmas trees.