Christmas Tree Collection Wrap Up

by Lou Anne DaRin

Waste Not Team Leader

Two hundred and forty seven Christmas trees were collected on Saturday by community volunteers and kept out of the landfill! Was yours one of them?  I hope so.  

There was a tremendous enthusiasm and energy from the 36 volunteers that worked on this project.  Volunteers were from Color Penfield Green, the Penfield Rotary Club, the High School environmental club, local Scouts, Town Board members, and friends and families of all of us.  It was an incredible turnout.

There was community enthusiasm for this project too!  Starbucks loved the idea of what we were doing and donated boxes of coffee for our volunteers to enjoy in the morning.  Dunkin was also excited about hearing how we were taking care of the Earth and they donated donut holes for our volunteers.  Pizza, hot chocolate, veggies with hummus and gas were donated by our amazing volunteers along with the generosity of their time. One volunteer even offered to go out two days after our pick-up to get any of the trees we missed!  

The most amazing contribution was from Broccolo Garden Center.  They let us use two of their big dump trucks for this project.  That was so helpful as those trucks carried about 15 trees while the smaller trucks could carry only about 4 or 5 before they had to head to DPW to drop off.  

Al Hibner driving the Broccolo truck while the PHS Environmental Club added 15 more trees to the growing pile

Throughout the whole process, we had a big assist from the Town. The Town Board was enthusiastic about the idea and shared it in their media. Town staff helped us get the word out in the Winter/Spring Parks and Recreation Brochure and at the Christmas Tree stands. Two Board Members, Linda Teglash and Bill Lang, and their families even picked up Christmas Trees with us! And of course, 247 trees now need to be mulched by our hard-working Department of Public Works crew!

Council Member Lang - Thank you!

I felt privileged to work on this project.  Not just because we had a lot of fun along the way but because it made me feel like we were making a difference.  If all those trees had ended up in the landfill instead of being mulched, those trees would have broken down in the absence of oxygen at the landfill.  When that happens methane gas is released into the atmosphere and that is a very harmful gas.  So by all of our efforts on this project we kept some methane gas out of the atmosphere and instead a useful, helpful mulch will be produced.  In a time when things aren’t looking very good for the environment, we all got moving and did something about it.  

This was really a project of working together.  We’re already planning to have it happen again next year and maybe we’ll collect even more trees!  If you didn’t participate this year, there’s always next time.

The morning shift of volunteers: PHS Environmental Club, Scouts, and many members of the Penfield Rotary and Color Penfield Green and their families. You Rock!

** Update!

Our Christmas tree total is up to 261 now because on Monday Pete Serron, with help from Tom DaRin, drove around and picked up trees we had missed on Saturday.  Residents of Penfield have been very pleased with our commitment to keeping trees out of the landfill.  We have so much gratitude for every single one of our volunteers!  None of this would have been possible without all of you!  We are so lucky to have such an amazing team of workers!