Recycle Your Christmas Wreath for Future Crafts

In this article, we will take a look at how to disassemble and recycle a Christmas wreath. It is possible to find several crafts for each part of the recycled Christmas wreath and not have any of it find the landfill. Let's take a look at how to take apart and recycle the Christmas wreath.

Start out by removing the Christmas decorations from the wreath. The recycled Christmas decorations, cones and bows can be used year after year, saving money by requiring you to need only a plain wreath next Christmas. Using your fingers, carefully flatten out the bow one loop at a time. Flattening the bow will help preserve it during storage. To unflatten the bow next Christmas, simply use your fingers to fluff out each loop.

Now the old Christmas wreath is ready to be disassembled. Start by scanning the Christmas wreath thoroughly for the end of the florist wire. Usually, the tag that says "product of Canada" is attached to the end of the florist wire. If you cannot find a single strand of florist wire ending in a loop, begin to look closely at the wreath for where the wires are wound closely together. You will either see the florist wire begin by being wrapped around the metal ring itself or see the florist wire wound several times in the same place. Then you know where to find the end of the florist wire.

To salvage the florist wire to recycle, procure a stick or board about an inch to two inches thick for winding the florist wire around. The fastest way to unwind and rewind the florist wire is to take the wood and loop it around the wreath. As the florist wire unwinds from the wreath, it rewinds on the wood all in one motion. If the wood has too much or too little wire on it, you may have to wind or unwind it a little each turn. Within ten minutes, the wreath will be disassembled and all the florist wire will be on the wood. You now have enough recycled florist wire for another wreath, or a free roll of recycled florist wire for other crafts.

You will be left with a metal ring. For wreaths 20 inches or less, this is usually a single, round hoop of iron. This can be saved and recycled into a number of very useful crafts, including making a homemade wreath for next season. Larger wreaths have a sturdy frame that can also be recycled for future wreaths. These recycled frames are good to have around. You never know when you will find a use for them.

You will also be left with the old Christmas greens. The Christmas greens can be recycled as mulch on the garden or flowerbed. If autumn leaves are on the garden, the recycled Christmas greens will hold the leaves in place for the winter. The needles should fall off the twigs by spring and can then be left to rot or be mixed into the soil. As a rule, the needles are generally acidic and can be added as compost to blueberry patches or compost for other places where acid-loving plants are growing. If you are not looking for acidity, the Christmas greens can also be recycled in the compost heap or left in the woods to naturally decay and recycle into the environment.