News From the Town of Colonie
Paula A. Mahan |
 |
Colonie Collecting Discarded Christmas Trees
Latham – Christmas is over, but the post-Christmas clean-up in Colonie has just begun. Weekdays through February 26, the Town of Colonie will send forth crews to collect discarded Christmas trees from curbsides throughout the Town.
“Christmas tree pick-up is just one small part of the resident services that make our Town a truly great place to live, and I thank all of our Town crews for their hard work in making this service possible,” said Colonie Town Supervisor Paula A. Mahan.
As many as ten crews a day will be traveling across the Town collecting trees, according to Colonie Highway Maintenance Supervisor Dan Chambers.
The crews come from the Town's Highway Department, which oversees the program, the Department of Environmental Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation. Each crew ranges from one to four people.
“Picking up all these trees is a big job and a lot of hard work. It's definitely a group effort, with everyone pitching in to get the job done as efficiently as possible,” said Chambers.
Canvassing of the Town began on January 4, and the canvass will be repeated as many times as manpower and equipment are available and weather permits.
Colonie is one of the region's largest municipalities, encompassing 56 square miles with more than 330 miles of roads, 27,000 residences and 6,000 apartments.
That's a lot of ground to cover and a lot of trees to collect.
To make the job go more quickly, crews drop the collected trees at designated drop-off sites. The trees are then trucked in larger vehicles to the Colonie Town Landfill.
“We used to grind the trees as we picked them up, but this method is definitely more efficient and allows us to move across the Town much more quickly,” said Chambers.
At the Landfill, the trees are ground up in one of two large grinders, the largest of which is fed by a horizontal conveyor belt. Ground-up Christmas tree material that is less than two inches long is added to other ground-up yard waste to produce compost, according to Joe Stockbridge, Colonie's Director of Environmental Services.
Stockbridge explained that ground-up Christmas tree material greater than two inches long is not suitable for compost, but is used, for example, to fill in Landfill roads when they are wet and muddy.
Each year, the Town generates about 25,000 tons of compost from yard waste, with ground-up Christmas trees making up a small percentage of the total, Stockbridge said. The compost is made available year-round at no charge to residents.
Residents should place discarded Christmas trees on the edge of their property adjacent to the roadway edge or curb. All trees must be free of ornaments, plastic bags, metals and other contaminants. Wreaths containing metal or plastic rings will not be accepted and should be disposed of with the regular trash.
Questions may be directed to the Division of Environmental Services at 783-2827 or at ensr@colonie.org .