The holiday season is over. The most obvious sign is the dried-up, discarded Christmas trees thrown out onto the sidewalk. Most waste-disposal companies have tree recycling programs that pick up the trees easily, create natural compost, and leave biodegradable shavings behind. What poses a problem is when the tree stand is still attached.

For the next week anyone can walk down a random block in New York City and see piles of old Christmas trees waiting to be picked up and recycled. Look closer and notice that a few of these trees' owners couldn't be bothered to make a little extra effort to actually remove the tree stand. They just threw it away with the tree. Maybe they think to themselves that they can just buy another tree stand next year, what's another $20? And probably that's what tree stand manufacturers want because more sales for them means — duh — more profits.

The City of New York Sanitation Department has its own Christmas tree curbside recycling program. Their website specifically states that: "residents should remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from holiday trees before they are put out at curbside for removal." A quick call to their public info office confirms that they will not pick up trees if they are not au natural — meaning if there is anything artificial still attached to the tree, it will not be collected. When the tree is not collected for recycling, that means it ends up in a landfill, cluttering up the world rather than being dispersed naturally.

In a few thousand years the tree might actually biodegrade, but the plastic stand attached to it will still be here. How many chemicals were leached into the air and water to make that plastic stand? How many chemicals will be leached into the air and water from that same stand when it is lying in the landfill?

If there are approximately five stands left on discarded Christmas trees on one block in Manhattan, with Manhattan compromising 6,718 blocks (according to survey work laid out by the Fund for the City of New York), that would be approximately 33,590 trees not recycled and the same number of tree stands left to clutter the landfills. If these owners had taken maybe five minutes of their time to remove the stands and stored them to use for next year, that would be $671,800 less they would have to pay collectively for a new stand next year plus 33,590 less plastic tree stands languishing in the landfill. Once landfills get filled up, new ones need to be created, which in turn creates higher taxes for you.

Recycling Christmas trees is good for the season, good for the environment, and good for the cities and towns with these types of programs. What's not good is a lazy approach to throwing a used tree to the curb without stripping it bare. The biggest loser here is you. You will ultimately pay for the higher taxes it will inevitably cost to build and maintain more and more landfills — and all this because someone didn't remove their tree stand.

keeping the earth ever green

Lisa Tae-Ran Schroeder