The city of McMinnville is unofficially offering its Christmas tree recycling for evergreens.

“We have an unofficial drop off area at the McMinnville Civic Center,” said city landscape manager Hank Patton. “If they drop them off, we will pick them up.”

Live trees can be donated at the front corner of the parking lot adjacent to Garfield Street and Clark Boulevard. The trees will be recycled into mulch and used by the city.

The switch from official to unofficial is due to the lack of trees being donated. Patton says the number of trees as steadily reduced over the years.

“We did not get many trees the last time we officially did it,” he said. “Not many places have them for sell, Lowes and some nurseries. I think people are switching to pre-lit artificial trees. If you have a real tree, we’ll recycle it for you. If you drop them off in that area, we will pick them up.”

When the program started years ago, three drop-off locations were offered and volunteers were used to help load all the trees. Due to the lack of trees being donated, the number was reduced to one. Now, it’s an unofficial collection.

People making donations are encouraged to remove everything that wasn’t on the tree originally, such as ornaments, tinsel and the tree stand. Trees with spray-on snow cannot be recycled.

There is no start date or end date to the unofficial Christmas tree recycling program.