The presents are unwrapped, your guests have left and now it is time to take down your Christmas tree, and the city of Lincoln wants it.

"We encourage people in Lincoln to recycle trees mostly to save space in the landfill. All of the Christmas trees, year after year, take up a lot of room, so this is a great way we can save space in the landfill," Sarah Viglucci with the Recycling division of Lincoln's Solid Waste Management said.

Trees can be dropped off until January 8th at seven collection sites throughout the city.

Ballard Park, 3901 N. 66th St.
Oak Lake Park, three blocks south of Cornhusker on 1st Street
University Place Park, 50th and Garland streets
Holmes Lake Park, parking lot west of the north softball field
Tierra Park, 29th and Tierra Drive
Woods Park, 31st and "J" streets, southeast corner of the parking lot
Hofeling Enterprises, 2200 S. Folsom Court (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays)

It's only been a couple days since Christmas and already the trees are piling up. It's the 25th year for the program and in that time, the city of Lincoln has recycled close to 200,000 trees.

"Lincoln was actually the first city in Nebraska to take on a program like this. I think we've seen there's been a great turn out, year after year. It's been beneficial for both the city and the community and that's why is continues on," Viglucci said.

The trees are taken to Hofeling Enterprises, also known as The Tree Guys, where they are ground into mulch. A service that doesn't cost the city a dime.

"Tree recycling is what we do. I thought this would be a great opportunity to give back to the city of Lincoln. We ask people to bring out trees. We recycle it. We grind it down. We double grind it and make a nice landscaping mulch," Scott Hofeling said.

All nails, wires, plastics and tree stands must be removed for the tree to be recycled.

"We don't want any steel because that will damage the chipper. The faster we can blow through it and give it to the people, the better everybody is," Hofeling said.

Mulch will be available for free January 9th on a first come, first serve basis.

For more information on the tree recycling program or the City's recycling program in general, call the Recycling Hotline at 402-441-8215 or visit the City website at recycle.lincoln.ne.gov