After Christmas is over and the tree has worn out it’s welcome, it is stripped of the decorative ornaments kicked to the curb.
Most people don’t think about it any farther than that, but what happens to those trees after they have had their moment of glory?
Region of Queens solid waste operations forman Scott LeBlanc says once they are put out to the curb, they are picked up in a special collection by G E’s All Trucking Limited.
Once collected, trees are then taken to the Western Head Leaf & Yard Waste site and chipped.
“Essentially what happens is they are just chipped up into small pieces and left on site,” says LeBlanc. “They are chipped on a yearly basis along with the other leaf and yard waste, like tree branches and leaves, those types of things.”
About 50 metric tonnes of Christmas trees are collected each year -
Once the trees have been chipped, they are made available on site for residents of Queens County.
“It's provided free of charge for residents of Queens to use for any landscaping needs they may have,” says LeBlanc. “It's a good mulch.”
LeBlanc says it would be impossible to guess how many individual trees are collected each year in Queens County, but the total weight comes in at about 50 metric tonnes.
