Trees can be recycled!

by NW Spotlight

Stop me if you already knew this – trees can be recycled! Apparently, if you cut them down they can be recycled and used to build things for a children’s playground. I wonder, with enough government and university studies, if trees could be recycled into other things? Maybe things that could be used to build homes, fences, furniture and even pianos? This is Oregon – let’s dream!

As with all good things in Oregon, this story begins in Portland. In order to build another bike path, Portland Parks and Recreation determined that they were going to have to cut down a majestic 75-year-old sequoia tree. That made some Portlanders very sad – one woman kissed the tree and said goodbye to it before they cut it down.

The majestic sequoia did not die in vain, however. Portland city officials said “they have plans to mitigate the loss of the tree.” Part of their mitigation plans include “recycling” the tree and turning it into “different features at a nature play area” in a Portland park.

Wow – what ingenuity! Imagine if Portland could spread this idea of recycling trees out to other parts of the state that aren’t as smart as Portland? There could become a whole tree recycling industry – where trees were cut down and then recycled into other useful things – like materials that could be used to build houses or micro-breweries! Small wonder Portland has a team called the Timbers!