Christmas Tree Recycling

“Where do I put the Christmas tree?”

Last week, people were asking that question about trees inside the house.  This week, it’s about where to put it when you take it out of the house.  Luckily, the City of LA Bureau of Sanitation has several good options for Christmas tree recycling.

First, for single family homes, the city does offer curbside collection of Christmas trees. Please remove all ornaments, decorations, tinsel and stands.  Then cut the tree up into sections and put them in your green bin, for pickup on your regularly scheduled collection day.  Trees collected this way will be recycled into compost and mulch.

If your Christmas tree is too big to cut and place inside your green waste bin, you can still place it next to your green bin on collection day and it will be picked up.

Residents of multi-family apartment buildings can also put Christmas trees at the curbside on neighborhood collection days. Whether you are serviced by LA Sanitation or a private hauler, the Bureau of Sanitation will pick up your tree on your neighborhood’s scheduled collection day. (As with single family customers, please remove all ornaments, decorations, tinsel, and the stand from tree.)  If you don’t know your collection day, there’s a handy finder at http://www.lacitysan.org/tree-recycle.htm , which also has lots of other information about Christmas tree recycling.

If curbside collection doesn’t work for you for some reason, there will also be a handy one-day Christmas tree drop-off event on Sunday, January 3, at six Recreation and Park locations.  From 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. that day, you can drop off your tree at several specific locations.  The three closest to us are:

Griffith Park
At Griffith Park, Junction Of
Golden State (5) & Ventura (134) Frwys
LA Zoo parking lot

Baldwin Hills
Rancho Cienega Recreation Center
5001 Rodeo Road

Rancho Park
Cheviot Hills Recreation Center
2551 Motor Avenue

As with curbside pickup, please remove all ornaments, lights, stands, etc. before dropping off your tree.

Another drop-off option is our neighborhood fire stations.  These two stations in our area will accept Christmas trees (stripped of ornaments, lights, stands, etc.) until mid-January:

Fire Station #29
4029 W. Wilshire Bl., 90010 – Hancock Park
(213) 485-6229

Fire Station #82
5769 Hollywood Bl., 90028 – Hollywood
(213) 485-6282

Finally, in addition to trees, please note that holiday wrapping paper, cartons, cardboard, Styrofoam® and other expanded polystyrene products, plastics and gift boxes are also recyclable and should be placed in your blue bins for curbside pickup. (Further note: it is illegal to place household hazardous waste, such as electronics (i.e. televisions and computers) and batteries into the collection bins. Please take those items to a S.A.F.E. Center for safe disposal and recycling.)

Happy Christmas cleanup!