As holiday season comes to a close, many families need to dispose of their Christmas trees. Approximately 30 million real trees are bought each year, all of which will be thrown away. Every year, so much waste is produced that special Christmas tree collection trucks are used daily on top of the normal garbage collection schedule.
In 2023, more than 1,000 tons of waste was collected, with Manhattan having the highest amount (340 tons), followed by Queens (306 tons), Brooklyn (246 tons), the Bronx (106 tons), and Staten Island (72 tons). When looking at the amount of waste per household, the rankings remain mostly unchanged, although Staten Island moves from last to first place, with an average of 0.78 pounds of tree trash per house. Manhattan generated 0.73 pounds, Queens generated 0.67 pounds, Brooklyn generated 0.44 pounds and the Bronx generated 0.38 pounds.
Many New Yorkers have been worried about the impact of Christmas trees on the environment, with one writing, “one of the most depressing sights of the year in my opinion is when people leave their real Christmas trees dumped in front of their houses.”
The new curbside composting program that started in 2024 turns this waste into mulch for parks and other community spaces, where they will benefit the environment. New Yorkers can either leave their tree on the curb or take it to one of the designated public parks for mulching.
The giant Rockefeller Center tree, a famous tourist attraction, is also recycled. It is milled into lumber, then donated to Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that builds and improves houses. This collaboration started in 2007 and has helped many families around the world.
With the new system, leftover Christmas trees will benefit the community while still making disposing of Christmas trees easy for citizens.
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