© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Where to recycle Christmas trees and holiday lights in Kansas City

“The biggest influence drought has on Christmas trees is the quantity of trees that may be on the market in future years,” said Kansas Forestor David Bruton.
Real Christmas Tree Board
/
Real Christmas Tree Board
Natural Christmas trees are considered yard waste by most waste management companies, which is illegal to dump in Missouri landfills and heavily discouraged in Kansas.

Instead of sending trees and broken lights to the local landfill, here’s how and where you can recycle those unwanted holiday wares.

Got a Christmas tree that won’t last much longer? A strand of lights that only lights up halfway? The Mid America Regional Council’s Solid Waste Management District is offering information on how to recycle and compost them.

Natural Christmas trees are considered yard waste by most waste management companies, which is illegal to dump in Missouri landfills and heavily discouraged in Kansas.

Nadja Karpilow, an environmental planner with the Mid America Regional Council says this is because of the wide range of uses composted trees have even after they’ve died.

“They can be used as trail surfaces or erosion control,” she says. “Some folks like to actually put whole Christmas trees into big lakes and that can actually help the fish habitat.”

According to Karpilow, composting natural Christmas trees is often the Mid America Regional Council’s most asked about service each year.

The organization has a list of drop-off and pick up recycling services located on both the Kansas and Missouri side of the Kansas City metro on their Recycle Spot website.

The site allows residents to search for nearby services based on their zip code and the items they are looking to recycle.

Karpilow advises residents to call these services in advance in order to learn when they will be operational, especially for those wanting to compost Christmas trees.

“A lot of local governments (run the services) and have a time period at which they will accept the Christmas trees,” she says. “It's a good idea to look through that list and then call first just to make sure. We don't want people to be illegally dumping after that period is over.”

A full list of locations offering natural tree composting can be found below:

Missouri:

Archie 

Belton 

Blue Springs 

Buckner

Excelsior Springs 

Freeman 

Gladstone

Kansas City, Missouri 

Kearney 

Lawson

Lee’s Summit 

Liberty 

Orrick 

Platte City 

Richmond 

Riverside 

Smithville

Sugar Creek

Weatherby Lake

Kansas:

Bonner Springs

Edgerton

Kansas City, Kansas

Leavenworth 

Leawood

Lenexa 

Olathe 

Overland Park 

Paola 

Prairie Village

  • Franklin Park
    • 913-385-4647
    • Dec. 23–Jan. 15
    • Prairie Village residents only
  • Porter Park
    • 913-385-4647
    • Dec. 23–Jan. 15
    • Prairie Village residents only
  • Taliaferro Park
    • 913-385-4647
    • Dec. 23–Jan. 15
    • Prairie Village residents only

Roeland Park

Shawnee

As KCUR’s Community Engagement Producer, I help welcome our audiences into the newsroom, and bring our journalism out into the communities we serve. Many people feel overlooked or misperceived by the media, and KCUR needs to do everything we can to cover and empower the diverse communities that make up the Kansas City metro — especially the ones who don’t know us in the first place. My work takes the form of reporting stories, holding community events, and bringing what I’ve learned back to Up To Date and the rest of KCUR.

What should KCUR be talking about? Who should we be talking to? Let me know. You can email me at zjperez@kcur.org or message me on Twitter at @zach_pepez.
KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and award-winning podcasts.
Your donation helps keep nonprofit journalism free and available for everyone.