The annual Christmas ‘Tree-Cycle’, sponsored and run local sustainability charity Planet New Canaan (www.planetnewcanaan.org), with support from co-sponsors the Exchange Club of New Canaan (www.newcanaanexchangeclub.com), a civic charity group whose major fundraiser is its Christmas tree and wreath sale at Kiwanis Park, and New Canaan’s Department of Public Works (DPW) and Parks Department, was completed last weekend. More than 800 trees were collected at the Steve Benko Pool parking lot, with much welcome labor provided by members of the New Canaan High School Service League of Boys – the SLOBs (www.newcanaanslobs.org) a local student/parent philanthropic group.
These trees, which were collected beginning the weekend after Christmas, will be chipped, with the chippings brought to the New Canaan Nature Center (www.newcanaannature.org) for several months of composting, during which the fine needles will compost. Come Spring, these chippings will be spread on the Nature Center’s trails – returned to the Earth.
The mountains of composting chips – called Christmas Tree Hill — are beloved play spots for children in the Nature Center’s preschool. One year the preschool’s Little Explorers class made sachets from the chips. “This is an excellent developmental experience for the children,” says Judy Gilroy, one of the program’s preschool teachers. During their play the children roll down the hill, climb up the hill and then run down the hill. “The children develop their senses and muscles.”
Many post-season Christmas trees are not sustainably recycled like this, but rather end up in landfills. “Putting old Christmas trees in landfills makes no sense,” notes Planet New Canaan’s president Robin Bates-Mason. To avoid this, and to generate woodchips to support trail maintenance, Planet New Canaan, and its partners, devised this sensible, sustainable solution several years ago. “Planet New Canaan and its partners are grateful for the broad support – and trees — from the New Canaan community that have generated the success of this initiative,” says Ms. Bates-Mason.
People with larger properties can recycle their trees on site by simply leaving the tree in an appropriate area of their property. Nature will take it from there.
In addition to Christmas tree recycling, Planet New Canaan partners with DPW in running the food waste composting program at the town’s Transfer Station, as well as the popular Swap Shop, where new or gently used items are free for the taking to reduce waste and keep items out of landfills.
