Recycle the Right Way this Holiday Season, from Christmas Trees to Twinkling Lights
A decades-long tradition continues in 2026 as San Francisco encourages safe, sustainable tree disposal, and recycling string lights is available for a limited time at select locations
San Francisco, CA – As we wrap up the 2025-2026 Holiday season and pack away our decorations, San Francisco is once again kicking off one of its most beloved zero waste traditions, the 38th Annual Christmas Tree Recycling program. From January 2 to January 16, 2026, Recology will collect unadorned Christmas trees throughout the city and turn them into compost.
"Recycling your tree keeps holiday waste out of the landfill and turns it into organic compost for farms and gardens,” said Director of San Francisco Environment Department Tyrone Jue. “When residents set trees out bare and curbside, crews can turn them into a resource instead of trash.”
Recycling your Christmas tree is easy. Place your tree next to your curbside collection bins the night before your scheduled collection day. Please position your tree so it can be easily spotted by the Recology crew exclusively collecting trees. It is very important to remove all decorations, tinsel, nails, stands, and lights – anything that had been added to the natural tree. Your tree must be as bare, empty, and natural as the day you purchased it! That way, there will be no contaminants in the compost.
If your tree measures more than 6 feet tall, please cut it in half. Trees should not be placed in a plastic bag. Trees will be collected curbside by a separate truck on your regularly scheduled collection day. Natural wreaths can also be collected, but all metal wires or frames must be removed.
After collecting the trees, Recology will transport them to Recology’s Jepson Prairie Organics composting facility, near Vacaville. Recology composting workers will feed the trees into a large grinder. The small pieces will be combined with other compostable material, such as food scraps, sticks, and leaves, and composted. The larger woody pieces will become part of the biofilter system at the composting facility to ensure optimal airflow in the compost piles.
"The annual Christmas tree collection and recycling program helps keep our neighborhoods clean and safe, reduces fire hazards, and keeps extra waste out of the landfill," said San Francisco Public Works Director Carla Short. "Participating is easy and the benefits are many."
Recology collects nearly 590 tons of Christmas trees in San Francisco during the first two weeks of January. “Recycling Christmas trees keeps them out of the landfill and allows them to be composted together with food scraps, sticks, and leaves at our regional composting facility,” said Robert Reed, spokesperson for Recology.
The winter holidays are some of San Francisco's largest recycling weeks of the year. Christmas tree recycling helps keep San Francisco clean and green by preventing improper disposal and illegal dumping.
It is also important for safety reasons to recycle your tree during the first two weeks of the new year.
“Dry trees can ignite in seconds. Recycling your tree early in January is a simple and vital step in reducing fire risk at home,” said San Francisco Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen.
The City reminds folks to recycle responsibly this season: use the blue bin for clean, loose, and dry recyclables; flatten cardboard boxes. Please place ribbon, twine, and Styrofoam in the landfill bin.
For a Limited Time: String light disposal
From dazzling outdoor displays to cozy home decor, holiday lights bring joy to the season— but eventually, they can break. Broken string lights should never go in your recycling or landfill bin. Their wiring can damage equipment and contaminate materials, and they require special handling. San Franciscans can find local and safe recycling sites at SFRecycles.org, which offers easy search tools for hard-to-recycle items. For a limited time, your local Cole Hardware store will collect broken string lights up until January 30, 2026.
Additional information is available online at https://www.recology.com. Residents and businesses can contact Recology at [email protected] or call (415) 330- 1300.
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SF Environment Contact: [email protected]