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Old Christmas Tree Pickups

The After Holiday Cleanup

When Christmas is through, what do you

do with your old Christmas tree? You

normally offer it to be recycled into mulch

by your city.

Disposing of their old Christmas tree becomes a big hassle for most people. Sometimes they are required to haul it to the recycling area miles away. Don't forget the mess of those dry needles that fall into the car backend or truck.

Did you know that you could call your local Boy Scout Troop to have it picked up? That is, if your local Boy Scout has an Old Christmas Tree pickup drive.

Actually, it could be your group that has an Old Christmas Tree pickup drive. You might be in an environmental or nature preservation society that offers this service. If you were the Optimist Club, Rotary Club, Jaycees, or Rotary Club that sold these trees, then you could arrange to have the trees picked up after Christmas on a certain day.

Arranging For Pickup

The easiest way to arrange for picking up the old

Christmas tree is when you sell the tree to them. At the

tree lot have your calendar ready. As someone is

handing you the money for their new tree ask them if they

want you to pick up your old tree and take it in for

recycling.

Another great way for arranging pickups is to print flyers

with phone numbers and days for two weeks following Christmas and New Years. Some areas of the country leave their trees up after New Years. Place these flyers on car windows at shopping centers and malls from two days before Christmas through New Years Eve.

Make sure to include an announcement in the local news media. Put all of the information up on your group's website. Announce your website on the radio and that you are willing to pick up old trees.

Pricing

Offer $5 to $15 per tree pickup. Or offer pickup for a donation. The donation method will more than likely only bring in about $5 per tree, but some residents will give $10 to $20.

It might be good to experiment during the first year to find the best pricing structure.

Pre-Arrangements

Contact a local "tree surgeon" or a tree service like Asplundh and make a request to have them reserve a truck with a shredder to follow you around to areas within a small geographic range. For those outside the city, arrange for a couple of men with large trailers to drive around picking up trees.

This would be a request for donating their services and equipment for free to your group. Every one of these companies have a shredder and limb grinding truck in their fleet.

Other Methods To Get Customers

When nearby a scheduled pickup, offer the next-door neighbor (that has their tree to be picked up by the city) to pick up their tree for a small donation. Do this during the day of activity that you are picking up your trees.

Have buttons on your scouts or members that say "Recycling Trees $10" ). This will allow you to go door-to-door selling this service.

Sell The Mulch

Finally, pile up the mulching's for sale to the general public and even landscaping companies. Sure there will probably be some tinsel in every tree, but this will oxidize fairly quickly.

Your pile of cash should turn out to be several thousands of dollars. Either way you pile it up, you can certainly expect to pile high the funds raised for your group.