Tag Archives: Mulchfest

Mulchfest 2011: Recycle Those Trees!

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The giant tree shredder in action at last year’s Mulchfest at Park Circle in Prospect Park.
Park Circle Mulchfest 2010

It’s tree recycling season in New York City. Residents can have their trees recycled into mulch for the City’s parks and gardens. Note that, although recycling pickup is still suspended after the post-Christmas blizzard, you can leave trees curbside for recycling pickup.

  • Remove all lights, ornaments, tinsel and tree-stands from your tree.
  • Leave your tree unwrapped. Don’t put it in a plastic bag.
  • Leave trees curbside starting Monday, January 3 for recycling pickup, OR
  • Bring your tree 10am-2pm Saturday, January 8th or Sunday, January 9th to one of 70 locations citywide.

Residents can also pick up free mulch at designated chipping locations.

Brooklyn Locations

This year’s Mulchfest locations for Brooklyn are almost the same as last year’s. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are on-site chipping locations.

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Location Address
The Amazing Garden* Columbia Street at Carroll Street Chipping
Cobble Hill Park* Verandah Place & Clinton Street Chipping
Coffey Park Dwight Street & Verona Street Drop-off only
Fort Greene Park* Washington Pk. & Willoughby Avenue Chipping
Green-Wood Cemetery 25th Street & 4th Avenue Drop-off only
Hattie Carthan Garden* Across from Von King Park: Lafayette Avenue & Clifton Place Chipping
Lincoln Terrace Park Buffalo Avenue between East New York Avenue & Eastern Parkway Drop-off only
Maria Hernandez Park Knickerbocker Avenue & Suydam Street Drop-off only
Marine Park* Avenue U & East 33rd Street Chipping
McCarren Park* Driggs Avenue & Lorimer Street Chipping
McGolrick Park Monitor Street & Driggs Avenue Drop-off only
Owl’s Head Park* Colonial Road & 68th Street Chipping
Prospect Heights Community Garden 252-256 St. Marks Avenue Drop-off only
Prospect Park* Third Street at Prospect Park West Chipping
Prospect Park Circle* Parkside Avenue & Prospect Park Southwest Chipping
Sunset Park 44th Street & 6th Avenue Drop-off only

Map


View Brooklyn MulchFest 2011 in a larger map

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Mulchfest posts:

Links

Mulchfest, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation
MillionTreesNYC
Partnerships for Parks
Prospect Park Alliance

Mulchfest 2010: NYC Recycles Trees

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Updated 2009-01-05: Added a map of Brooklyn Mulchfest locations.

Park Circle Mulchfest 2009
Park Circle Mulchfest 2009

It’s tree recycling season in New York City. Residents can have their trees recycled into mulch for the City’s parks and gardens:

  • Remove all lights, ornaments, tinsel and tree-stands from your tree.
  • Leave your tree unwrapped. Don’t put it in a plastic bag.
  • Leave trees curbside from Monday, January 4, through Friday, January 15, for recycling pickup, OR
  • Bring your tree 10am-2pm Saturday, January 9th or Sunday, January 10th to one of over 80 locations citywide.

Residents can also pick up free mulch at designated chipping locations. Volunteers from Sustainable Flatbush, including your host, will be helping out at the Park Circle location of Prospect Park.

Map


View Brooklyn MulchFest 2010 in a larger map

In addition, Brooklyn residents are invited to drop off their Christmas trees at Green-Wood Cemetery for mulching, daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Jan. 9, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Master composters from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden will be on hand to discuss the benefits of using wood-chip mulch. Free wood chips will be available in exchange for those who bring their trees. Sponsored by the Green-Wood Cemetery and Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Green-Wood Cemetery, Fifth Avenue, at 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, (718) 768-7300; free.

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Related Content

Mulchfest posts

Links

Parks: MulchFest

Parks Press Release, 2010-01-11t

Record numbers at Mulchfest 2009!

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Brooklyn Gothic
Good Shepherd Services Crew

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks) reports that Mulchfest 2009 was a big success, bringing in many more trees than last year. And Brooklyn, as usual, rocked the house:

MulchFest 2009 brought 17,083 trees from around the city – a 30 percent increase from last year. New Yorkers from Brooklyn brought out the most trees of any borough at 7,325, followed closely [not that closely!] by Manhattan’s 5,820. Queens’ residents brought out 1,736 Christmas trees. The Bronx chipped 920 trees while 457 were mulched at the event on Staten Island.

– Parks And New Yorkers Get Chipper For Mulchfest 2009, Press Release, Parks, 2009-01-12

I worked with the crew from Good Shepherd Services, pictured above, to distribute mulch along the eroded horse paths in Park Circle during Mulchfest 2009. There were LOTS of volunteers on hand during the day to handle the bigger workload.

Park Circle Mulchfest 2009

This year, Parks & Recreation designated 89 recycling sites to accept trees throughout the five boroughs on Saturday, January 10th and Sunday, January 11th between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. At many of the tree drop-off locations, chippers were on hand and residents could take home mulch for their own gardens and plants. The Department of Sanitation will also be making curbside tree collections and transporting them to recycling sites from Monday, January 5rd through Friday, January 16th. Last year, more than 173,000 Christmas trees were collected and recycled by the City – more than 13,000 through MulchFest.

Park Circle Mulchfest 2009

Related Content

Park Circle Mulchfest 2009
Mulchfest 2009

Reminder: Mulchfest 2009 is underway

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MorBark in action at Park Circle, Prospect Park during Mulchfest 2008
MorBark Action Shot

This is a reminder that Mulchfest, NYC’s recycling program for holiday trees, has begun. Your tree will be chipped and used as mulch in parks and gardens across the city. All trees must be free of lights, stands, ornaments, tinsel, and so on.


View Larger Map

Starting last Thursday, New Year’s Day, you can drop trees off at Greenwood Cemetery.

Starting tonight, you can leave trees out for curbside pickup. Blog Widow and I dismantled out tree earlier this evening and set it out.

And on Mulchfest weekend, January 10 and 11, you can drop off trees at sites throughout the city. You can also pick up free mulch at chipping sites.

Related Content

Brooklyn Mulchfest 2009

Links

Mulchfest

Important update to Brooklyn Mulchfest 2009

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I just found out – by accident, not by any NYC announcement – that two important components of the annual Mulchfest that I thought were lost this year due to budget cuts are back in:

You can drop-off trees at Greenwood Cemetery at the 5th Avenue & 25th Street Entrance from 8 am to 4:30 pm daily from January 1 thru 9, and until 2 pm on January 10. Also on January 10, from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday, a tree chipper will be on site and Master Composters from the Brooklyn Compost Project will be available to answer all your composting questions.

The Department of Sanitation will collect trees left at the curb for composting starting Monday, January 5 through Friday, January 16. As always, you must remove all lights, ornaments, and stands from your tree before setting it out at the curb for collection.

I’ve updated the original post, which has all the details, including a map of chipping and drop-off locations.

Related Posts

Brooklyn Mulchfest 2009

Brooklyn Mulchfest 2009

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Important updates, 2008.12.23: Good news!

  • You can drop-off trees at Greenwood Cemetery at the 5th Avenue & 25th Street Entrance from 8 am to 4:30 pm daily from January 1 thru 9, and until 2 pm on January 10. Also on January 10, from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday, a tree chipper will be on site and Master Composters from the Brooklyn Compost Project will be available to answer all your composting questions.
  • The Department of Sanitation will collect clean Christmas trees left at the curb for composting starting Monday, January 5 through Friday, January 16. As always, you must remove all lights, ornaments, and stands from your tree before setting it out at the curb for collection.

Me loading a tree onto a truck during Mulchfest 2008.
Loading the Truck

I know I just got my tree up yesterday, and it’s not even decorated yet, but it’s also time to think about where your tree will go when you’re done enjoying it.

Saturday and Sunday, January 10 & 11, 2009, from 10am to 2pm, you can bring your tree to multiple Parks locations throughout the city. This map shows all the Brooklyn locations for Mulchfest 2009. On-site chipping locations are indicated by the green tree icons. Drop-off only locations are indicated by the arrow&star icons. Be sure to first remove all lights, ornaments, decorations, tree-stands and what-not before turning your tree into mulch.


View Larger Map

This year’s locations are almost the same as last year’s. New this year is a drop-off location at the Brooklyn Bear’s Pacific Street Garden.

A few drop-off locations were lost this year, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, Shore Road Park, and Bensonhurst Park. Greenwood Cemetery, which provided extended drop-off dates last year, is not listed at all this year. And there is no curbside pickup this year. You must take your tree to one of the drop-off or chipping locations.

The closest location to Flatbush is Park Circle, at the corner of Prospect Park Southwest and Parkside Avenue. To volunteer or for more information call (718) 965-8960 or email volunteers@prospectpark.org. I volunteered at last year’s Mulchfest and it was a lot of fun.

Related Posts

Other Mulchfest posts
My photos from last year’s Park Circle Mulchfest [Flickr set]

Links

Mulchfest, Parks

Park Circle Mulchfest 2008: Sunday, January 6

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219 trees were chipped at this location on Saturday, 564 on Sunday. The two-day total was 783. Not bad for the first time at this location.

I left Saturday about 12:45pm, so I didn’t get to see how the rest of the day went. When I arrived Sunday morning, there was already a full corral of trees waiting to be chipped. I don’t know how many of them were left over from Saturday. It’s likely that many of them were dropped off overnight.
Sunday Begins

There was a much bigger turnout of volunteers today than yesterday. It took a while for everyone to get signed in this morning.
Volunteer Registration

It’s a good thing we had all the volunteers on hand. There were several large truckloads delivered during the day.
Offloading another Truckload of Trees
Offloading Another Truckload of Trees

As expected, many more people brought their trees today rather than yesterday. There was a pretty regular stream of arrivals. Most of the folks brought their trees by car, but they also walked, as this couple did, wheeled their trees in laundry and shopping baskets, and even biked them in.
Bringing the Tree

The chipper didn’t operate constantly all day. We’d build up a large batch of trees, then the Parks staff would crank up the chipper and polish off the pile quickly. When the timing was right, and the chipper was active, folks dropping off their tree got to watch their very own tree getting chipped.
Saying Goodbye to the Tree

In the interest of photos of garden bloggers, here’s an action shot of me bringing a tree from curbside to a Parks pickup truck. It’s not in my garden, but it’s somewhat gardening-related. Several of the Parks staff and some of the volunteers addressed me as “Santa”.
Loading the Truck
Loading the Truck
Loading the Truck

Guardian of the Tools
Guarding the Tools

Related Posts

My Mulchfest posts
Park Circle Mulchest 2008 [Flickr set]

Links

Mulchfest 2008, Parks

Park Circle Mulchfest 2008: Saturday, January 5

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Update 2008.01.06: I’ve added a post with photos from today.

Trees check in, they don’t check out.
Tree Corral
Today I volunteered for the city-wide Mulchfest at the Park Circle location. I had a great time, and I’m going back tomorrow.

The 3rd Street entrance to Prospect Park has been the focus of past years, and it was this year as well. By 11am, we heard that they had already handled over 300 trees. All the media were there, as well as the Parks Commissioner.

This is the first year that chipping is being done on-site at Park Circle. It was slow to start at 10am, but the pace picked up during the morning, and by the time I left around 12:30pm, I estimate at least 200 trees had been chipped and shredded, with more arriving every few minutes. Parks trucks went out with staff and volunteers to cruise the streets in the area for trees left for curbside pickup. They brought those back to park Circle for chipping. That was the source for most of the trees, though we had several drop-offs as well.

Because today was Three Kings Day, many people in the area of Park Circle had not yet taken down their trees. Tomorrow should be even busier.

Assembly Line

The chipper empties into the back of a specialized dump-van/track. A couple of times during the day, the truck backs up and dumps out a huge pile of mulched Christmas trees.

MorBark Action Shot

The mulch is available for residents to come by and pick up. I got four big bags of it to use in my backyard. Parks staff and volunteers also moved the mulch to mulch trees around Park Circle. We’ll be doing more of that tomorrow, as well.

Finished Mulch Dump Action Shot

Two of the volunteers at Park Circle were from the radio station Hot97. They sent a small crew over from 3rd Street to Park Circle. I think they interviewed everyone there, including me. So sometime in the next week there will be a very brief (about 10 seconds) video of me on their Web site.

Thank You Very Mulch!
Thank You Very Mulch!

Related Posts

My Mulchfest posts
Park Circle Mulchest 2008 [Flickr set]

Links

Mulchfest 2008, Parks
HOT 97 at Mulchfest 2008

Volunteers still needed for Park Circle Mulchfest this Saturday and Sunday 10am-2pm

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Update 2008.01.06: I’ve added a post with photos from today.
Update 2008.01.05: I have photos from my stint at Park Circle today.
Update 2008.01.04: I will be volunteering Saturday and Sunday for as long as I can hold out. Hope to see some of you there!

Earlier today I called Volunteers in Prospect Park, (718) 965-8960, and confirmed that they still need volunteers for this weekend’s Mulchfest in Prospect Park.

Earlier this week, I posted a map of Brooklyn Mulchfest 2008 locations. The Park Circle location is closest to my neck of the woods. The current weather forecast calls for sunny partly sunny with highs in the mid to upper 40s on both days. Sounds like great days to be out and about, get in touch with new neighbors, and make new friends.

If you want to volunteer, just call the number above during the day on Friday. I know the coordinator from waaay back in the day, so tell her I sent you!

I’m going to sign up for Sunday, and possibly Saturday. Hope to see you around this weekend.