Recycle Those Trees!

Christmas is over, and for most people, that means that the decorations must come down. But what to do with the decorations that can't be put back into storage, such as the live trees and wreaths and garland? I hate seeing the lovely Douglas firs and blue spruces and Norwegian pines that lent themselves so beautifully to the holiday decor of many a Chicago home cast heartlessly onto the curbs and into the alleyways to be picked up with the trash, especially when the city has a better solution! From Saturday, January 3rd through Friday, January 16th, the City of Chicago will be accepting trees at the following locations for recycling.

The service has been expanded from a couple of Saturdays to nearly two weeks, due to the overwhelming response in recent years. There are some other changes, though-- the city will not be collecting regular recyclables at these locations like it has in the past, and it sounds like, instead of blue bags or a free CFL bulb, the city will be offering bagged mulch to recyclers (albeit on a limited basis). The city will then use the extra mulch from the recycled trees on gardening and landscaping projects throughout the city later this spring.

So look out the window the next time you're on the el-- the trashed trees that are leaning against the dumpsters are very easy to see from this heightened vantage point-- and try to envision how much landfill space those discarded trees will needlessly be filling. That's a lot of mulch!