This holiday season, the Town of North Hempstead encourages residents to recycle their live Christmas trees. The Town urges all residents to help our environment by reducing, reusing and recycling.

All Christmas trees disposed of at the town’s Transfer Station will now be ground by the Town’s Transfer Station operator, Omni Recycling of Westbury, Inc., before disposal. This includes trees that are brought to the Transfer Station through regular trash collection routes, and trees brought to the Town’s Residential Drop-Off Program.

“Aside from being easier and less expensive to dispose of, ground wood can also be used for a variety of environmentally friendly uses, such as environmental reclamation projects,” said North Hempstad Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth. “Grinding wood waste means that less wood ultimately makes its way into landfills, which also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”

Residents can leave live Christmas trees curbside on normal yard waste collection days for the first two weeks of January in accordance with their collector’s schedules. Schedules can be found at: www.northhempsteadny.gov/CollectionSchedules.

Please remove all decorations, lights, ornaments, tinsel, stands and any plastic bag or plastic wrapping used to transport the tree to the curb. Place the plastic bag or plastic wrapping in your trash receptacle.

Additionally, residents can also dispose of their Christmas trees at the Town’s Residential Drop-Off Program at the Transfer Station, 999 West Shore Road, Port Washington, on Sundays that the Drop-Off is operating (fees apply). January dates for the Residential Drop-Off are Jan. 10 and Jan. 24. Please visit: www.northhempsteadny.gov/ResidentDropOff or call 311 for more information.