Ready to part with your holiday tree? Don’t just set it in your alleyway! Not only is leaving trees at the curb or in a street or alley illegal, as per L.A. Municipal Code 57.21.06, dry trees can create a fire hazard.
So recycle your tree properly and give it a new life! Of course, every city in the L.A. area has its own set of rules — so follow the guidelines for your ‘hood. Remember to take off all decorations from your tree to reuse next year — That’ll also help make the chipping and mulching process go more smoothly.
Last but not least: I’ve even included a couple special treecycling services at the bottom for those who for some reason can’t manage to follow the city guidelines on their own.
Beverly Hills: Put your tree next to your trash bin on trash collection day.
Culver City: I can’t find any info on the city’s website — so I called the department in charge of recycling around 3:30 today — to get a message that their office hours are from 5:30 am – 3 pm (WTF?!). I imagine the instructions will be similar to last year’s.
Los Angeles: Don’t be like this bad Angeleno who stuffed a tree into a black bin. Treecycling’s easier than ever, since the city’s provided lots of different options: 1) Chop up the tree and put it in your green bin, 2) haul the tree to one of many drop off sites across the city on Sat., Jan. 3 – Sun., Jan. 4 between 9 am – 4 pm, or 3) simply place the tree at the curb on collection day.
Pasadena: Place your tree at the curb before 7 am on your trash collection day between Mon., Jan. 5 – Fri., Jan. 16. Or drop off your tree at one of two sites: Eaton Blanche Park (3100 E. Del Mar Blvd.) or Robinson Park (1081 N. Fair Oaks Ave.) between 7 am – 2 pm before Sat. Jan. 3.
Santa Monica: Take advantage of the city’s Park Your Tree program and drag your tree to Clover Park (25th and Ocean), Douglas Park (Chelsea and Wilshire), Christine Emerson Reed Park (Lincoln and California), or Los Amigos Park (5th and Hollister) any time during the month of January. You can also drop it off at the City of Santa Monica Transfer Station at 2401 Delaware Ave. during 8 am – 2 pm, Mon – Sat.
West Hollywood: Put your naked tree on the sidewalk on your regular trash collection day before Friday, Jan. 16
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Other options
California Christmas Tree Recycling. For $25 (more for ginormous trees), you can have a gung-ho treecycler called Charles “Chip” English come over to your place, drain the water, vacuum up the needles (especially useful since regular vacuum cleaners can get clogged up with needles), and recycle the tree for you. About 5% of the money you spend will to go TreePeople (or to Santa Cruz Chapter of Surfrider Foundation for Santa Cruz residents).
Will Campbell. To take advantage of this free recycling service, you’ll need to live near one Will Campbell. This guy not only recycles his own tree, but likes to scour his ‘hood to find other discarded trees to haul onto his truck before hauling the load over to a city drop off point. I tweeted him to find out if he’s doing the same again this year, but he appears to be busy drinking Pabst and smoking handmade Leon cigars.
Image via smgov.net
Ha! Sorry for the tweetlessness (hic/puff)! Indeed, I will once again be making the rounds and picking up after my lazy inconsiderate irresponsible neighbors … even though we personally don’t need to make a trip to the drop off point. This year the wife and I opted to decorate the living 3.5-foot tall version of the seedling we’ve been nurturing since we got it two tree-recyclings ago!
Comment by Will Campbell — December 30, 2008 @ 4:16 pm
I chop/cut off the branches of our tree, using them for mulch/compost for our native plant yard, then leave the trunk in our yard (may eventually use for fencing/barrier of some sort, but in the meantime it may provide some habitat for critters)…….
Comment by Steph — January 1, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
Cool about the nurtured seedling! Is it planted outside, or in a large pot?
Steph — That’s a great option for people with yards :)
Comment by Siel — January 3, 2009 @ 12:20 pm