Spalding County will be collecting old Christmas trees at two locations now and several county sites on Jan. 9 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

According to a release from the county, area residents will be able to drop off Christmas trees to be ground into mulch or used as wildlife habitat.

There will be six recycling sites — the Kiwanis Fairgrounds on South Hill Street, the Blalock Recycling Center on Newnan Road, the Cabin Recycling Center on Jackson Road, the Carver Road Recycling Center on Carver Road, the Akin Recycling Center on South McDonough Road and the Woodroof Recycling Center on Old Atlanta Road.

Assistant Director of Central Services Kevin Barkley said trees can be dropped off at the fairgrounds or the Carver Road site at any time.

However, donors will not receive free seedlings this year due to budget cuts, unlike previous years.

Despite this, Barkley said it was important people knew they could donate the trees to be recycled instead of putting them in the landfill. He said mulch from the trees will be available.

The event is sponsored by Spalding County, the city of Griffin, the Kiwanis Club of Griffin, Keep Griffin-Spalding Beautiful, the Spalding County 4-H, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the Keep Georgia Beautiful Program, The Home Depot, the Davey Tree Expert Company and 11 Alive, Atlanta’s NBC affiliate.

Those interested in finding out more information should call Recycling Supervisor Tim Crane at 770-467-4262.