With a hint of evergreen scent and the sound of a wood chipper lingering in the air, residents in Lincoln Park closed the book on the holiday season Saturday by participating in Chicago’s 12th annual tree recycling program.
Randall Blake Novak, 46, said he had asked his neighbors beforehand to leave their Christmas trees with him. On Saturday, he and a friend dropped off about 15 trees for recycling and were planning to return in Novak’s pickup with another load.
“This seems more fitting as an end result to a tree that’s served its honorable purpose,” said Novak, who owns a three-story building in Lincoln Park. “It’s a way to say goodbye to a tree with some respect. It doesn’t deserve to be in the garbage.”
The Lincoln Park location, near Cannon Drive and Fullerton Parkway, was one of 20 parks throughout the city where residents could dispose of Christmas trees and other evergreen remnants from the holidays without leaving their cars.
Crews from the Department of Streets and Sanitation’s Bureau of Forestry and the Chicago Park District were on hand to unload bare Christmas trees, wreaths and branches and chip them on site. Residents could take a bag of mulch or leave it with city workers, who said leftover mulch would be used for tree planting.
“It’s easy, and why not? It makes me feel better about it,” said Aubree Caunter, 26, of Lincoln Park.
Caunter and her husband, David, dropped off the 12-foot evergreen they enjoyed during Christmas and two smaller trees from their landlord.
“We’re not super environmentally conscious people, but looking at that 12-foot tree, you think it shouldn’t be going right into a landfill,” she said.
City officials said they were expecting thousands of trees to be dropped off during the one-day program. A steady stream of residents that morning made the stop in Lincoln Park, which officials said is among the busiest locations each year. Senior city forester John Lough said about two dozen trees were left before crews arrived early at the site, which he said usually takes in 400 to 450 trees.
After the drop-off, participants received spruce seedlings from the city, with instructions on how to plant them.
Brian Collins, 32, of Lincoln Park made the errand an outing for his 4-year-old nephew, Michael White.
“He wanted to see the trees get chopped up,” Collins said.
Among the heap of evergreens headed for the chipping machine, Novak still had a soft spot for his own Christmas tree. He said he left a small red ribbon on one of its branches before loading it onto his truck.
“I’m just hoping that the park can use it, or maybe the zoo,” he said.
Residents who missed the recycling program should set trees outside with their garbage, said a Streets and Sanitation spokesman. He said crews will handle the trees as yard waste and attempt to separate them from trash for composting or mulching.
