CLEVELAND — Recycling a live Christmas tree looks different than recycling plastic water bottles.

“About 10 million trees end up going to the landfill every year. So it is a problem and we need to make sure that we responsibly dispose of them,” said Carin Miller, education specialist for Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District in Cleveland.

She said while trees can’t be shoved in the recycling bin, and there are other options.

“So some cities use it in their own landscaping programs or they'll send it to a composting facility to be composted. So that's why it's so important to take anything off of the tree that is not a tree,” Miller said. “You can go directly to your community’s city service department and find out what the rules are there.”

For those who don’t want to look up the specifics of their community’s Christmas tree recycling program, Miller said there are easier options.

“You can actually just put the tree in your backyard. So once you're done with it in the house, just take it out in your backyard, set it up, you can set it up like a tree, you know, upright, or you can put it on the, on its side,” she said. “It will provide habitat for animals during the winter. So birds will use it as extra cover during the winter.”

Farms and wildlife parks, like African Safari Wildlife Park near Cedar Point, use the trees as enrichment said Kelsey Keller, the director of the park.

“The trees are just something different that they don't get all the time. They only get them basically this time of the year,” Keller said. “But we take the trees out and give them to our, basically all of the hooved animals in our park though, the bison, the elk, the deer, all of our cows, our llamas, alpacas, camels. They all get trees and they actually eat out them, scratch on them, rub on them, toss them and play with them. You name it.”

Whichever way people recycle their tree, Miller said keeping it out of the landfill is important.

“When we send organic material to the landfill, it doesn't really decompose there,” Miller said. “A landfill is a closed environment and it actually ends up with it when it does break down…it breaks down very slowly and it actually produces methane gas, which is a very potent greenhouse gas. So, we want to keep as much as we can out of the landfill in general.”

The African Safari Wildlife Park takes Christmas trees until around Jan. 10. The park asks that everyone drops them off during business hours and makes sure all ornaments and lights are taken off the tree.