Stop bagging up your trees! Christmas trees should be stripped bare of all decorations, including tinsel. They should not be put in a bag or covered with netting.
So when can Providence residents put their trees out for the city? According to the Providence page of the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) website, Christmas trees are to be “picked up curbside during the second and third full weeks of January.” I’m pretty sure I know what that means.
A helpful trash tutorial by Krystal Noiseux in today’s ProJo — “Un-deck your halls with an eye to proper recycling” — provides useful guidelines.
We do need you to properly prepare everything for mulching. It’s critical for your trees and greenery to be absolutely bare. That means there can be no tinsel, lights, ornaments, etc., left on the tree. It also means that the tree must be loose — never wrapped in a net, sheet, or tarp. Your real wreaths and garland must be taken apart, too, and any metal frames and wires must be removed. Trees and greenery will be fed into a grinder, and we can’t have any metal, plastic, glass, etc., winding up in the mulch.
No . . . wire . . . hangers . . . ever! For those of you who leave the tree up till St. Patrick’s Day, you are invited to bring your real tree and greenery to Resource Recovery: Monday-Friday, 6am to 3:45pm. And Saturdays, 6am to noon.
Go here for virtual tours of the landfill; the eco-depot; the composting operation; and perhaps most important of all, the materials recycling facility. Once you see how that operation works, you will understand why . . . no wire hangers ever. Restrictions on what is recyclable are almost always based on the limitations of the machinery. A string of lights can gum up the works and even create a hazard for the workers. String lights do not go in the mixed recycling bin; they go in the garbage.
RIRRC, Central Landfill, Johnston, (directions)