Astoria Tumbleweeds and Mulchfest

I’m told that the custom is to ditch your Christmas Tree sometime around the 7th of January (Epiphany?), and on cue the Astoria Tumbleweeds made their annual appearance at the curb (after the snow melted). When the wind starts to blow, these things start to roll along, like the tumbling tumbleweeds.

Fascination with the way that New York City handles any sort of seasonal problem – a sudden surge of highly flammable and mobile trees entering the waste stream, for instance – absolutely demands that I at least take a look at how the machinery of Christmas Past works here in the center of the megalopolis.

According to the NYC Department of Sanitation, my sudden interest in the subject is propitious, for Mulchfest is upon us once again, and it’s this weekend!

From nyc.gov:

In Christmases past, the DSNY has typically collected about 140,000 Christmas trees for “tree-cycling.”
 
“Recycling Christmas trees gives them a second life after all the presents have been opened and the holiday is over,” said Commissioner Doherty. “Christmas tree recycling is just one of the many recycling programs we offer, and we are very pleased to do so. Providing collection and recycling options for residents is environmentally valuable and benefits all our neighborhoods.”
 
The Parks & Recreation Department will be hosting Mulchfest 2014 on Saturday, January 11, 2014 and Sunday, January 12, 2014 from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. at drop off sites throughout the city. To find citywide locations, visit the Parks & Recreation website at www.nyc.gov/parks. The event allows New Yorkers to drop off their Christmas trees at designated parks for mulching and event attendees can pick up free mulch. All lights, ornaments, and decorations must be removed from trees prior to drop-off.

For more information on Christmas tree collection and recycling and/or Mulchfest 2014, visit www.nyc.gov/sanitation or www.nyc.gov/parks or call 311.

140,00 trees collected by DSNY in 2013, and Mulchfest 2013 consumed 26,000 of them. These are great numbers, but there have to be that many curbed tumbleweeds in any square mile you might wish to draw in Western Queens.

The realchristmastrees.org website, home of “The National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA),” offers several options for disposing of a Christmas Tree in an environmentally friendly manner. Their advice seems to be aimed at a rather more rural audience than one would expect around NYC, although the urban tumbleweed pictured above was actually acting as a path marker for a hiking trail in Astoria recently.

This trail is called “the sidewalk,” incidentally, by neighborhood wags.

Lisa L. Colangelo at the NY Daily News offered an interesting article the other day, describing an experiment underway out in Rockaway that uses Christmas Trees as raw material in the fight against beach erosion.

The shot above depicts a tree which has been set out for the Department of Sanitation in exactly the wrong way. DSNY has published the following missives recently regarding the disposition and delivery of your tree to the curbside for pickup and disposal.

From nyc.gov:

The NYC Department of Sanitation will be conducting special collections for mulching and recycling of Christmas trees.

Collections will take place beginning on Monday, December 30 through Wednesday, January 15, 2014.

Residents are encouraged to put out their discarded trees at curbside as early as possible during the collection period.

DSNY asks residents to remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees before placing them out for collection. DO NOT place trees in plastic bags. Trees will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields, and community gardens throughout the city.

Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman lives in Astoria and blogs at Newtown Pentacle.