Twelfth Night is the official end of the Christmas season, as well as the beginning of the Carnival season. So it’s time to take down the Christmas trees.
If you want your tree to be recycled, here’s what you need to do:
• Remove all ornaments, tinsel, lights and the tree stand.
• Place the tree at the location of your regular garbage collection before 5 a.m. on your second regularly scheduled second collection day. That’s either Thursday, Jan. 9; Friday, Jan. 10; or Saturday, Jan. 11.
Only natural, unflocked trees that are free of all stands and trimming can be recycled. Flocked trees, artificial trees, trees in bags and trees with trimmings will be collected with the garbage and transported to the landfill.
Trees are not to be placed on the neutral grounds, as this delays the collection process.
The city’s Department of Sanitation — along with its solid waste contractors Metro Service Group, Richard’s Disposal and Empire Services; the City’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability; and the Louisiana National Guard — are working together to collect, sort and bundle the trees. They will then be placed in selected coastal zones.
This project is funded by the city’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability. In 2019, more than 6,000 Christmas trees were collected in Orleans Parish after the holidays and airlifted by the Louisiana National Guard into the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge as part of a program to create new marsh habitat.
For more information, call the city information line at 311.
