During a meeting, it was announced that starting this year, Christmas trees will be placed in specific locations to be announced by the authorities, and then collected and transformed into compost. The initiative is driven by the Urban and Domestic Cleaning Authority, the Ministry of Environment, the Panamanian Chamber of Recycling, and the local governments of Panama, Colón, Arraiján, La Chorrera, and San Miguelito. A press conference was held at the University of the Americas to launch an awareness campaign aimed at citizens who use natural Christmas trees, which are generally discarded in rivers, streams, or end up accumulating in landfills after January 6. Authorities reiterated their call to citizens not to discard trees in rivers, streams, or landfills and to join this environmental initiative. Unlike previous years, when the trees were simply collected and sent to landfills, this time they will be given a new use, preventing them from becoming an environmental and collection problem. 'Instead of overwhelming the sanitation systems with the saplings on top of the garbage, we are going to eliminate a serious problem and turn it into compost, into new life for our plants,' declared the Minister of the Environment, Juan Carlos Navarro. Mayors Mayer Mizrachi, Irma Hernández (San Miguelito), and Eloy Chong (La Chorrera) attended the event. In the case of Arraiján, it was announced that the trees will be collected at Westland Mall and in the 2 shopping center Brisas del Golf Park, although temporary points will be set up in different sectors of the district, from where the trees will be transferred to that site. Hernández explained that the main collection center will be at Los Andes. Neither the mayor of Colón nor the mayor of Arraiján attended, but both districts were represented.
