Jan 7, 2007 7:45 am US/Central
Christmas Tree Recycling Expected To Surpass 2006
CHICAGO (STNG) ―
The city's 2007 Christmas Tree Recycling Effort, which began Saturday, is expected to surpass last year's 12,000 tree total, according to a release from the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
Mayor Richard M. Daley and other city officials including 43rd Ward Alderman Vi Daley, Streets & Sanitation Commissioner Mike Picardi, Environment Commissioner Sadhu Johnston, and others met in Lincoln Park Saturday morning to help kick-off the citywide Christmas tree recycling effort.
Chicago residents were encouraged to bring in their used live trees, or a substitute bag of clean recyclables, to any one of 23 locations citywide Saturday, between the hours of 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Early arriving residents were given a one year supply of Blue Bags and a small Colorado Blue Spruce, in return to their contribution, the release said. All participants were offered a bag of fragrant mulch made from the recycled trees.
Even Ald. Thomas Tunney (44th) pitched in at the recycling effort. Tunney showed up at the Lincoln Park collection site behind the wheel of a truck filled with discarded Christmas Trees from the alleys of his ward, the release said. The alderman dropped off his load of trees, greeted Mayor Daley and participants, before returning to his ward to collect several more truckloads.
"A used live tree can take up as much space in a landfill as a washing machine and last year we were able to keep more than 12,000 trees out of area landfills," Mayor Daley said of the program's importance.
According to the release, it looks like the City will eventually surpass the 12,000-tree figure, based on the initial count. On Saturday, the city collected 10,047 trees. Residents began dropping off their trees at Saturday's collection sites earlier in the week and can continue dropping off trees during the upcoming week, however only the trees collected Saturday have been counted. Once all the trees are collected, City officials expect the final number to surpass last year's total number of 12,000 trees, the release said.
"We saw extremely heavy participation Saturday and the 1,680 trees brought into our Lincoln Park tree recycling site surpassed last years collection of 1,490 at Warren Park on the far North Side," noted Streets & Sanitation Commissioner Mike Picardi in the release. "During the upcoming week we will allow those who missed Saturday's event to continue to drop off their used live trees to the tree corals at the 21 Park District sites that participated Saturday."
For additional information on this program Chicagoans can call 311 or visit www.cityofchicago.org and select the option "Recycle My Tree."
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2006. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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