Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, the town board and the town’s Solid Waste Management Authority encourage residents to recycle their live Christmas trees, holiday gift wrap paper and old unwanted electronics in an effort to help our environment by reducing, reusing and recycling.
Community members can leave live Christmas trees curbside on normal yard waste collection days for the first two weeks of January after removing all decorations, lights, ornaments, tinsel, stands and any plastic wrapping used to transport the tree to the curb. The plastic wrapping should be placed
in your trash receptacle. Holiday wrapping paper can be included along with other paper recyclables.
“Christmas trees are biodegradable and, by recycling your tree, they can be repurposed into mulch and reduces the space it would take up in a landfill,” said Bosworth, who also encourages the recycling of unwanted post-holiday electronics.
Residents can drop off old electronics on Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at North Hempstead’s residential drop-off site at 999 West Shore Rd. in Roslyn. E-waste can also be dropped off weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., excluding holidays, at North Hempstead’s Solid Waste Management Authority (SWMA), located at 802 West Shore Rd. in Port Washington.
You should also be aware that under the NYS Producer Responsibility Law, manufacturers are required to offer take-back programs to directly
accept e-waste from consumers. Cell phones, which are not considered e-waste, are accepted by all wireless providers for recycling/reuse. Additional take-back programs may come in the form of mail-in, physical drop-off locations, or in the case of large TVs, home removal of the item with the purchase of a new TV or at a nominal fee.
For more information on tree-cycling, call 311 or visit www.northhempsteadny.gov.
