THOMASVILLE — As the holidays come to an end, so will Christmas trees that have occupied homes for the past few weeks, but one initiative will call on residents to rethink the way they dispose of them in the new year.

Keep Thomas County Beautiful is teaming up with Thomas County Public Works to host the fourth annual “Bring One for the Chipper” event on January 8 from 9 a.m.-12 noon at the City of Thomasville Recycling Center located on the 1300 block of Remington Avenue.

The statewide event will give residents an opportunity to get rid of their undecorated Christmas trees in an environment-friendly process.

“It’s a great way to reduce our impact of sending waste to the landfill, but then it’s also a form of reusing or composting as well,” said Julie Murphree, executive director of Keep Thomas County Beautiful.

Tree seedlings provided by the Georgia Forestry Commission, free T-shirts and seed packets will be distributed at the event, along with recycling information.

During the days leading up to the event, residents can drop off their trees to the recycling center or one of eight Thomas County waste drop-off sites to be recycled.

The mulch created from the Christmas trees will be used for compost projects such as resurfacing parks and trails, county landscaping and aquatic habitat usage.

Last year’s event was impacted by COVID-19 but still got in around 125 Christmas trees to recycle, Murphree recalled.

This year, she hopes there will be even more trees recycled.

While the yearly event targets recycling as many Christmas trees as possible, Murphree said informing the community about the importance of recycling is just as rewarding.

“It’s not always the quantity but just to say I had a quality conversation with somebody about recycling in general, to me that’s more of a win,” she said.

For more information about the Bring One to the Chipper recycling event, call (229) 236-1486.