Unless you plan on keeping your Christmas decorations up for 361 more days until the holiday rolls around again, the tree’s got to go somewhere. Last year, Americans spent $1 billion on a total of 28.2 million real Christmas trees. If you want to see all that money put to good use and are already wondering where to put your living room-dwelling greenery, I ask you to consider recycling or reusing those trees.

Christmas trees or Hannukah bushes can be used for mulch or woodchips. Gardeners and landscapers need mulch to nourish plantings in both urban and rural settings because it controls weed growth, thus reducing the need for toxic herbicides. Woodchips can be used for hiking paths or on playgrounds. According to Earth 911, “Christmas trees have also been used for erosion control, soil stabilization and shoreline maintenance. When used in this manner, the trees not only stabilize the soil, but also provide habitats for fish, birds, amphibians and mammals.”

To find places that recycle Christmas trees, you go can go to this site to look up a tree recycling center near you. Just type your zip code into the green search bar at the top of the page and a few locations should pop up (in my area there were 17 within 10 miles of me.) There are lots of reasons to be green this holiday season and even more free and easy ways to do it.

The artists featured here have converted everyday trash items into pieces of contemporary art. This process, which some call “upcycling,” is pretty popular among contemporary artists these days. I’ve found a zillion beautiful and creative examples of upcycling; so I’ll be posting what I’ve found over the next few weeks. This is just a sample…

Tim Nobel & Sue Webster

Tim and Sue collect trash from the streets of London and position the items in a way that creates surprising silhouettes.

Vik Muniz

Muniz arranges his collages, takes a picture of the completed work, and then destroys the original piece so that only the photograph remains.

Bernard Pras

Pras, a French artist who spent his childhood in a toy store, stacks ordinary objects over celebrity portraits to form a collage- a process called anamorphosis.

Happy New Year. Stay tuned for more.