It is disturbingly common in America and worldwide for businesses to throw out perfectly good products if they don't sell quickly enough. This can be especially frustrating during the holidays, when so many people and charitable organizations are in need of supplies and gifts to make the season a little brighter. One dumpster diver on Reddit called out local businesses for throwing away multiple artificial Christmas trees that they were able to salvage with only a $5 tool.

What's happening?

The original poster shared several photos in the r/DumpsterDiving subreddit, along with their story. "I was super excited to look in my local dumpsters and find these gems," they said. "I was wanting a pencil Christmas tree super bad but couldn't afford one."

The OP wanted a Christmas tree, enough to put in a little work to restore these ones, which they have photographed covered in ornaments, in addition to built-in lights. 

"I honestly didn't even have a tree up," they said. "It was a little depressing but boy I was thrilled when I found these. I have three and a half total. Two of the trees only had half of the trees' lights working and one is missing the slide ins for the stand. I ended up going to Lowe's to check out there 75% off sale on Christmas stuff and found a Christmas light checker for $5 so I bought it and fixed both trees. Still looking to find some slide ins for the little tree so I can give it to somebody."

Why are salvaged Christmas trees important?

The problem with just throwing out plastic Christmas trees is an issue of scale. 

Every year, families and businesses all over the country are putting up these trees, which are growing in popularity compared to cutting live trees. Even if a relatively small percentage of these trees break and get thrown away every year, that number is multiplied by the sheer quantity of households and businesses buying these trees, not to mention the size of each tree. 

That's a lot of plastic waste — and, in the case of trees with built-in lights, a lot of e-waste, too. But, as the original poster proved, they are easy to fix and restore to working condition.

Are businesses doing anything about this?

Unfortunately, many companies would rather buy a new Christmas tree than task an employee with repairing an existing one. While they may donate unneeded office items, they usually will not donate something that is broken, even if it is fixable. Meanwhile, stores that end up with too many Christmas trees to sell are also throwing them away. This leaves a lot of room for improvement.

What other options are there for discarded Christmas trees?

If you have a Christmas tree with lights that don't work, a simple Christmas light tester could be all you need to fix it. If that doesn't work, consider using the tree anyway and just adding more strings of lights separately.

If you do need to get rid of it, consider selling it online or donating it instead of throwing it out. While an an unusual item like a Christmas tree is difficult to recycle, many items are widely accepted for similar programs. Look into companies like Trashie, which accept a wide variety of textiles and electronics for recycling.

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