The City of Thomasville's Self Drop-Off Recycling Center accepts live, undecorated Christmas trees for recycling from December 26 until January 4. The "Bring One for the Chipper" program has diverted over 6 million trees from landfills across Georgia in its 34 years. Recycled trees will be turned into mulch and made available to the public once the recycling process is complete.BROADCAST SCRIPTThe holiday season brings a lot of waste, but we can turn that into something beneficial.I covered the story about buying Christmas trees in Thomas County a few weeks ago.Now, I'm talking to neighbors who are coming together to prioritize recycling them.Live Christmas trees benefit the environment significantly.The National Christmas Tree Association reports that 350 million trees on US farms absorb CO2, support wildlife, and are a renewable resource.But as the holidays end, more neighbors are disposing of their trees.The "Bring One for the Chipper" program is making sure they are efficiently doing so.In the past 34 years, they have kept over 6 million trees out of landfills in Georgia.Bob Tillery, from the recycling center, says they're preparing for more holiday recyclables."We usually don't get any Christmas trees until after the 28th that's when people start taking them down," said Tillery.While Christmas trees are a seasonal focus, the center handles a variety of materials year-round."Cardboard and aluminum are actually the easiest things to recycle, plastic and glass are the two hardest," said Tillery.SEE RELATED STORYCity of Tallahassee offers Christmas tree recycling to enhance public safetyFor many Thomasville neighbors recycling has become a weekly ritual."I come out here once a week, I bring my recycling that we've collected over the week and then I recycle it," said Nix.But this time of year is special."All the present boxes, gotta recycle, need them out of my house," said Nix.But it's important to remember that recycling extends beyond just clearing clutter.I spoke with Ashok Patel, an environmental engineer who tells me this is making a huge difference to our landfills."As we put it in a landfill, landfills are gonna get full and eventually we'll have to have more land," said Patel.And everything you're recycling will go to make sth else."The cardboard, they can actually shred it, recycle it, melt it," said Patel.Before you recycle your tree, keep in mind that the trees do need to be live, unbound, and free of decorations, and cardboard has to not be contaminated with water or food.