Go Green: Tree-cycle

It looks so pretty, sparkling in the living room throughout the holiday season - and so sad out by the curb in the trash.

So this year, don't throw out that Christmas tree. Recycle it.

Both Doylestown Borough and Township are making it easier than ever to give that evergreen another life.

Doylestown Borough residents can drop off their live trees at the borough's public works yard at the north end of Harvey Avenue.

Drop off starts Monday, Jan. 3 and trees will be accepted until the end of January, borough manager John Davis said.

Trees can be dropped off between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The borough public works employees will put the trees through a chipper and turn them into wood chips, Davis said. Residents can then take the wood chips for use at home. Chips will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Doylestown Township also will accept live trees behind its building at 425 Wells Road. Trees can be dropped off from January 1 to February 15.

But with the help of a Central Bucks West High School student, the township hopes to collect even more trees this year.

Tristan Kowalski, a senior at the Doylestown high school, partnered last year with Top Hat Lawn Care to pick up 75 trees and cart them to the township building. He's doing it again this year and hopes to double that amount.

"Please help spread the word and we can all go green this winter," Kowalski said at a township supervisors' meeting earlier this month.

The teenager developed the program last year as a graduation project, after noticing so many of his neighbors leaving their trees out with the trash.

"I thought if I could somehow make it just as easy for residents to recycle their trees, we could decrease the number of trees in the landfills and benefit the township," he wrote in the township's fall newsletter.

If you live in Doylestown Township and want to have your tree picked up, email info@doylestownpa.org or call 215-348-9915 with your name, address and phone number.

Tentative pickup dates are January 2, 8 and 15.

The township hopes to recycle at least 500 trees, which would save 65 cubic yards of landfill space.

It would also save the township money, too. Doylestown Township keeps the mulch the trees generate and uses it in its parks.