Dear PoPville – When Will Christmas Trees Get Collected? Will they Still be Composted?

“Dear PoPville,

I’m aware that until Jan. 11th, Christmas trees were supposed to be composted by the city, and after that they’ll be trashed/not composted. I got this info here.

We’ve had our tree in our alley alongside our recycling/trash cans since New Year’s Day, but it (along with what seems like every other tree in the alleys of Mt Pleasant as of a walk I took last night around 10pm) has been ignored by the city over what is now two trash/recycling pickups. We had trash pick up yesterday and recycling pickup today and the tree was ignored both times.

I called 311 and was told someone would be out eventually to get the trees, but when I asked whether there was any way to ensure that the trees would be composted given tomorrow’s deadline, the person I spoke with became very cagey and dismissive and basically just told me that the trees would be removed.

Any ideas from readers as to what to do would be much appreciated!”

DPW wrote to the various listserves:

“The Department of Public Works apologizes to District residents for the inconvenience caused by missed trash and recycling collections last week. Our operations were hampered by severe weather on Tuesday and staff shortages through the week because of employees unable to work because of the flu. We expect normal operations to resume this week. We appreciate your patience.”

I emailed DPW to ask if trees would still be composted and they replied:

“Winter weather – snow and ice – have kept our leaf collection drivers on the streets spreading salt or plowing, which means we have gotten behind on tree and greenery collections. We are continuing to collect this week and these items will be composted.”