The Town of Okotoks has wrapped up another season of Christmas tree collection and chipping.

And this year's efforts resulted in almost 13 tonnes of trees chipped. That's about the same as last year, but represents a significant decrease from 2016 when about 20 tonnes were chipped.

Paul Lyons, Town of Okotoks Waste Services Manager, says they did a few things differently this year, including curbside chipping as well as reducing vehicles and manpower required.

"We've seen significant reduction in collection days and number of trips that are made to do this kind of collection," Lyons explains. "So, we believe that this approach might be beneficial from an economic, a social and even from an environmental standpoint."

Lyons says the chipped trees were taken to the Foothills Regional Landfill where the chips are incorporated into the composting program there. The resulting compost is eventually made available for sale, but Lyons points out that the wood chips are not sold as mulch due to the possible presence of gypsy moth in the trees.

He says they'll be analyzing this year's results before any recommendations will be made on how the program will look in the future.

"I think that as we continue to evaluate further we will determine our next steps," Lyons explains. "But I think the results from this year were very, very good results."

Just over 1,300 trees were collected and chipped from January 8th to the 19th this year.

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