Believe it or not, your Christmas tree could in fact be recycled and turned into sweeteners or paint, rather than going to waste.

Christmas may be gone, gifts may have already been opened, and even returned by now, all the cookies are without a doubt all gone. But the one thing that does in fact remain is the Christmas tree sitting around in your living room with very little purpose, other than perhaps some memories.

Even with fake trees becoming more and more popular, there is still an impressive 30 million real Christmas trees sold annually in the United States. And after serving their purpose, most of these trees are then sent to landfills.

Now, however, researchers in the United Kingdom has found a unique way to break down a component existing in the pine needles of the trees, known as lignocellulose, and use it in order to create sweeteners as well as paints.  This bio-discovery can help reduce waste in very unexpected ways.

So the tree that once decorated your house for Christmas could potentially be what you paint your house with on another occasion.