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Community Corner

Tree-cycle: Recycle Your Tree and Make Up For That Carbon Tree-Print

Why, how and where to recycle your Christmas tree.

It's likely your Christmas tree traveled long, gas-guzzling distances this year to get to your home. A recent Patch article  reported that the majority of trees sold in our neighborhood come from Canada, Oregon (gasp!), North Carolina and Vermont. So, it's refreshing to know that you can recycle your Christmas tree locally, and generate nourishing mulch that will benefit trees, shrubs, gardens and parks in our very own New York City. It's as easy as leaving your tree curbside, or taking a family outing to a local MulchFest 2011 site.

The Department of Sanitation reports they collect roughly 2,500 tons of Christmas trees each January – these trees wind up in landfills. To help combat the unnecessary waste, the NYC Parks Department teamed up with DOS to launch MulchFest. Last year, a total of 24,000 trees were recycled. This year, 35 tree drop-off and 35 wood chipping sites across the city will be collecting trees on January 8 and 9.

The wood chips are "tree-cycled" by the Parks Department and used for mulching plantings citywide. You can simply drop off your tree at a site, or bring your own bags to the designated chipping sites and take some woodchips home to use in your window boxes, planters, pots and backyard gardens. 

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There are a handful of local MulchFest sites in South Brooklyn. Cobble Hill Park, at Verandah Place and Clinton Street, handles both drop-offs and chipping. The Amazing Garden at Columbia and Carroll streets, also provide chipping. Check the website for a full list of Brooklyn locations.

At the nearby Prospect Heights Community Farm, urban farmer Virginia Webster is gearing up for hosting MulchFest for the second year in a row. According to Webster, a record number of trees were recycled at her garden last year.

Find out what's happening in Prospect Heights-Crown Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"For the first few days the trucks never stopped loading up - finally they realized that wasn't working, so they arranged to have the last 300 or so be chipped on the spot. The Parks wood chipper man wasn't very happy when he drove up and saw all our trees. His face was priceless!"

Webster believes that Christmas tree recycling is a great way to get your kids to start thinking consciously about the environment.

"It's a great way to etch into your kids' memories what the responsible thing to do is. It gives children a sense of accomplishment," she said. "This is an easy way towards being able to say, 'I helped our world today.' Many came back in the spring for free mulch and compost knowing they had been a part of that."

Webster usually begins campaigning for Christmas tree recycling early, thanks to flyers provided by the Parks community gardening agency, GreenThumb.

"We all band together and put flyers up at tree selling stands and local stores, so that folks have it in their minds what they'll be doing as a plan not to waste their trees as they buy their trees," she said.

The event has been a fun community-building event, too.

"It was amazing how many people dropping off trees wanted to talk. Some good souls loaded up their neighbors' trees and carpooled them to our garden. The mood was very festive," Webster said.

For those who can't make it to a MulchFest site, the Department of Sanitation will offer free curbside Christmas tree pick-up from January 3 - 15. As a general rule for both curbside pick up and drop-off and chipping sites, you should remove all tinsel, lights and ornaments. Trees with any decorations will be disposed of as garbage.

Also, do not put trees out in plastic bags. 

In addition to bagging up some mulch for your own planters, consider taking some woodchips back to your local street tree pits. In winter months, trees benefit from an insulating layer -- much like we do!

Remember that the season of giving doesn't end on December 25 -- give back to the local environment by recycling your Christmas tree. 

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