NYC Kicks Off MulchFest To Recycle Christmas Trees
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation kicked off MulchFest 2011 Saturday in their effort to recycle Christmas trees.
The two day event features many sites, where city residents can drop off their trees and have them turned into wood chips, which will be used to nourish trees, plants and gardens across the area.
"It'll help keep the roots warm. It will keep the moisture in. It's a very valuable thing and you'll be doing something good for the environment," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told 1010 WINS.
The locations will operate Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
LINK: Find A MulchFest Location Near You
The Parks Department along with the Department of Sanitation and GreeNYC are encouraging people to try and top the nearly 24,000 trees recycled in 2010.
Biodegradable bags will also be provided for participants to take home some free mulch.
"Everything that we can remove from the waste stream by recycling...saves the city money. It also keep the environment better because you're not transporting things in trucks or in trains and creating pollution," Benepe said.
Meanwhile, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was sliced up into 600 2x4 studs, which will be used to build a new home.
Cathy Collins of Habitat for Humanity in Newburgh spoke with WCBS 880's Sean Adams about the cause.
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WCBS 880's Sean Adams tells us how the Rockefeller Center tree will be used
"I applaud Tishman Speyer [co-owner of Rockefeller Center] for their building this relationship with Habitat International to really see the full circle of this tree being that giving tree," she told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.
The tree's journey has also inspired a book, according to Rockefeller Center Managing Director Keith Douglass.
"Its going to be a children's book about the life cycle of the tree and the scraps this year are going to be milled into paper that will be used to produce the book," he said.
