With Christmas behind us, many are preparing to dispose of their natural Christmas tree.

The town's waste and recycling department will once again be collecting those trees as part of their curbside pickup program from Jan. 4 to 15. That allows two potential pickup dates for every household.

The trees can be placed on the curb on the normal day your waste and recycling bins are emptied. They should be stripped of all decorations and tinsel and be at the curbside by 7 a.m.

Fabrizio Bertolo, the town's manager of waste and recycling, says they should be situated no closer than one metre from any of your waste bins on the curbside. They can be also placed on properties as long as it's located close to the curb.

"Sometimes the parking areas are pretty tight here in Cochrane, so they can also put it on their properties, as long as it's close to the road," says Bertolo.

If it's unavailable in your area or you miss those dates, the trees can be placed in the branches bin at the Cochrane Eco Centre, 50 Griffin Industrial Point, until the end of January. Face masks must be worn while visiting the Eco Centre and the number of people using the centre at one time is being controlled.

Some residents have already been disposing of their trees there, says Bertolo.

"The first day we were open (after Christmas) was Tuesday, and we already had a few people coming down."

The collection of Christmas trees is no small matter. Last year, the town collected about 10 metric tonnes of trees to be composted.