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Here’s where to recycle your Christmas tree in Vancouver

What better way to end the Christmas season than to throw the centrepiece of festivities into a wood chipper — for a good cause, of course.
Kathryn Tindale
There are a number of spots across the city to drop off your Christmas tree. Photo Dan Toulgoet
There are a number of spots across the city to drop off your Christmas tree. Photo Dan Toulgoet

What better way to end the Christmas season than to throw the centrepiece of festivities into a wood chipper — for a good cause, of course.

Remember to remove all tinsel and decorations before bring your tree to the disposal site where it will be broken down in a wood chipper and taken to the landfill for compost.

Here’s where you can recycle your Christmas tree in Vancouver.

Wood chipper services are offered by the Vancouver City staff and Lions Club Volunteers on Jan. 5 and 6, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at:

  • Kerrisdale Community Ice Rink parking lot (5670 East Boulevard, north of 41st Avenue)
  • Kitsilano Beach parking lot (Cornwall Avenue and Arbutus Street)
  • Sunset Beach upper parking lot (Beach Avenue and Broughton Street)
  • Trout Lake Community Centre parking lot (3360 Victoria Dr., south of East 12th Avenue)

Cash and non-perishable food donations will be collected from these locations for local charities.

Or if that Christmas tree needs to be gone sooner, UBC Botanical Gardens offers a chipping service Dec. 26 to Jan. 8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There will be signs to direct your placement behind the orange posts. After being chipped, the trees will be repurposed for mulch on garden trails.

Cash donations are accepted with suggestion of $5 as the minimum. Proceeds will support the SPEC School Gardens Program at Thunderbird elementary school.                                                           

If the wood chipper isn’t your thing: live, cut Christmas trees will be collected from households with City Green Bin service Jan. 12 and 13. To ensure pickup, residents should set out their tree by 7 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 12.

To get your tree ready for pick-up:

  • Remove all decorations and tinsel
  • Lay the tree on its side
  • Leave the tree loose (no bags, string, or rope)
  • Do not put your tree inside your Green Bin

For more information and a map of locations, visit vancouver.ca/home-property-development/christmas-tree-disposal.aspx

And to learn more about the SPEC School Gardens program, visit

botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/news-events/events-activities/christmas-tree-recycling-2018/

Note: This story has been updated since first published.