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The holiday season has officially come to a close, which means it's time for clean up duties: from gift wrappings to leftover foods, menorah candles and bottles of wines, households are filled with decor and items that need to be put away or recycled—including Christmas trees.
In New York specifically, there are three main ways to recycle your evergreen. We break them down right here:
Take it to a local farm
It will take a bit of legwork on your part, but you can donate your Christmas tree to a local farm. Make some calls to find a proper destination that will accept the donation and use it as food for the animals on site or, perhaps, help you properly recycle it in other ways.
Curbside collection
Did you know that the NYC Department of Sanitation collects Christmas trees through its curbside composting service? In even better news, you don't need to make an appointment: just leave your fir out on your recycling day and make sure to remove all ornaments from it before then. One more thing to keep in mind: the tree should not be inside any sort of plastic bag when disposing of it.
Mulchfest
Perhaps the most popular way to recycle your Christmas tree involves Mulchfest, the city's annual event that has become a sort of local tradition.
The program runs now through January 12 at participating locations that you can find right here.
After hauling your tree to the closest destination, pros will take over to chip it into wood chips that will then be used to nourish the city's greenery. Next weekend also happens to be chipping weekend, so you will get to leave with your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard!