Dundee Township tree recycling continues through January

It gets a little funny this time of year at the Dundee Township highway garage along Route 72.

When the employees start accepting fresh-cut Christmas trees after the holidays, they see people driving to their garage dragging trees behind their cars.

The also see some people wrestling oversize trees from the top of their cars to the pile behind the garage.

And some people they see with a trunk full of shrubs they took out of their yards in the fall but never got around to putting them in the trash.

“We'll take those too,” said Dundee Township Highway Commissioner Larry Braasch. “They'll go in the chipper like the trees.”

Then, the remains will be used for trails in the townships open space properties, or they will be given to residents for their gardens.

“We've been known to deliver wood chips to a residents' driveway,” he said. “They don't stay around long.”

Township officials have been collecting trees for their holiday recycling program for 15 years. All of those years have been comical, but they have been beneficial as well. The hundreds of discarded Fraser and balsam firs and long-needle pines that once served as the centerpiece of the holidays will not make their ways to state landfills.

“Every year we keep hundreds of them out of the landfills,” Braasch said. “A couple of years ago, we took in more than 600 trees. Last year, we received 375 trees. Other municipalities have started similar programs. Think of all the trees that are being put to good use.”

None of municipalities are in the villages of Dundee Township, though.

What's not so funny about the recycling program are people who leave ornaments, tinsel and lights on them. They can damage the chipping equipment, the commissioner said. Also, they could injure the employees who run the equipment.

The program started the day after Christmas and will run through January. The garage is at the corner of Route 72 and Sleepy Hollow Road.