This weekend you can “treecycle” your Christmas tree into mulch at Washington Square Park near the Arch. When I watch the trees sadly make their way through the chipper, I tend to side with Phoebe from “Friends”* (see video below) but this fate is better than ending up in a landfill. The trees are chopped into wood chips which are used to “nourish” trees and plantings city-wide.
Dates & time: Saturday, January 6th and Sunday, January 7th 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Washington Square Park & City-wide
(Get there on time. People tend to just leave trees at the park at odd hours!)
The NYC Parks Department said more than 30,000 trees were “recycled” in 2016; this year, the city agency noted that more than 26,000 trees were chipped in 2017, so the number went down significantly – did less people buy trees or did fewer people “treecycle?”
From the Parks Department:
Bring your holiday tree to a designated city park to be recycled into mulch that will nourish plantings across the city!
Join NYC Parks, the New York City Department of Sanitation , and GreeNYC to recycle your Christmas trees into wood chips. These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree. More than 26,000 trees were recycled last year. Help us top this number!
Remember to remove all lights, ornaments, and netting before bringing the tree to a MulchFest site.
Find other locations around the city here.
* In case you don’t get the Phoebe/“Friends” television show reference, watch this:
Check out these great photos of around this time of year MulchFest & park happenings in 2014 here.
Photo: Cathryn