LUMBERTON — Christmas trees can still serve a useful purpose even after their use for brightening the holiday season is over.

Steve Edge, Robeson County’s Solid Waste director, says that trees disposed of at any of the county’s 11 new collection sites that have a compactor will be taken to the landfill in St. Pauls. There, they will eventually be ground into chips to be used for boiler fuel.

“We used to grind the trees up for mulch to be used right on site,” Edge said. “But by selling the chips for boiler fuel, we are doing the environmentally right thing and receiving a little bit of money for doing it.”

Edge said that the Christmas trees taken to the landfill will not be ground until July. Grinding of the approximately 1,200 tons of vegetative debris dumped in the landfill each year usually takes place just once over a 12-month period, he said.

According to Edge, it costs those disposing of vegetative waste at the landfill $24 a ton. The cost of grinding is $9 a ton, and the price the county receives for the chips is $5 a ton.

“We make a net profit of $20 a ton,” he said.

Edge added that only Christmas trees will be transferred from the collection site to the landfill.

“No other vegetative trash. No front yard tree trimmings,” he said.

With more than 30 million Christmas trees tossed out each year in the United States, recycling of the greenery is becoming the trend. In addition to being turned into fuel at biomass plants, trees can be ground into mulch for a multitude of uses, including water conservation projects, weed control, and even covering for hiking paths.

Like Edge, Robert Armstrong, Lumberton’s Public Works director, encourages those with Christmas trees to recycle them. Armstrong said that Lumberton residents can put their trees out curbside, where they will be picked up by Waste Management, the company that contracts with the city for disposal of residential trash and vegetative debris. Armstrong said that Waste Management transports the trees to the city’s disposal site off Saddletree Road.

“About three times a year, the trees are ground into mulch, an earthy type compost and clean hardwood chips,” Armstrong said. “If there is a market, the chips are used for boiler fuel. If not, they are incorporated into the compost or mulch-like product.”

Armstrong said that trees need to be clean to be used in the grinding process. All ornaments, lights, artificial snow and anything plastic need to be removed, he said, before the trees are put out to the curb for pick up.

“We’ll pick up the trees. We wouldn’t expect our residents to try to dispose of them,” Armstrong said. “But we don’t pick up trees for out of city residents. We don’t have a place to store them.”

The director added that he expects the number of trees placed at curbside for disposal will peak this week or next.

The 11 compactor sites where county residents can take their trees for disposal include: Parkton, 15 Knapdale Road; Morgan J, 1935 Morgan J. Road; Prospect, 6061 Prospect Road, Maxton; Alma Dirt Road, 66 Daystrom Drive, Maxton; Purvis, 38 Hubbard Road, Rowland; Moss Neck, 528 N. Chicken Road, Pembroke; Lowe Road, 3141 Lowe Road, Lumberton; Pecan Grove, 248 Sanchez Drive, Lumberton; Lamb Road, 182 Lamb Road, Lumberton; Hammonds Road, 191 Hammonds Road, Lumberton; and Sand Rock Road, 41 Sand Rock Road, Fairmont.