Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging...
Not only green when summer’s here,
But also when ’tis cold and drear...

Hubby Patrick heckled me with his singing because our Christmas tree’s leaves were anything but unchanging. I purchased the tree in that first surge of Christmas spirit I get every year before Thanksgiving weekend is out. Had Patrick been with me when I bought it, he would have picked out one with a thicker trunk. “Holds more water,” he’d have explained, “stays green longer.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

But Patrick wasn’t there, and I picked a pretty, perfectly shaped noble fir, which had a thin trunk and showed signs of drying out within a week. So I had to endure Patrick’s sarcastic caroling as I swept up a pile of amber needles from beneath the tree and hoped the guests due to arrive would only notice the glow of the lights, not the droopy branches of the tree.

That poor tree sat behind the greenery bin for another two months before I finally cut it up and threw it away.

That was last year. This year, the Kelly family is trying to be more organized. We bought a healthier tree, and we will dispose of it properly. Vance Sharp, project manager for I Love a Clean San Diego, filled me in on this year’s tree-disposal options. “In general, the rules are pretty much the same for each of the three major waste-haulers — Waste Management, EDCO, and Allied Waste — no matter what city you are in. As far as tree drop-off locations, the time and the dates are a little bit different from city to city. For all three waste-haulers, if you are a resident and you have a recycling bin, there will be curbside pickup for the two weeks following Christmas. If the tree is taller than six feet, you need to cut the tree up into four-foot sections and put it in the green waste bin, and the waste-hauler will pick it up.”

Those who don’t have a bin “should bring their Christmas tree to one of the drop-off locations in the city. There will be 16 drop-off locations all over the city, open from December 26 to January 23,” continued Sharp. “It is just for residents, and they can drop off their trees anytime during daylight hours. [Go to sandiego.gov/environmental-services/recycling/christmas.shtml for locations.] The basic rules for drop-off: no ornaments, no tinsel, no nails, no tree stands; it has to be the bare tree. And they will take natural as well as flocked trees.”

After pickup, the trees are deposited at the Miramar Landfill. “The trees all go to the greenery, where they are ground up and turned into mulch. The tree needs to be ground up and heated so all the pathogens — any bacteria or damage-causing insects — die. And they just grind it up into mulch at the greenery, and you can go and pick it up. You can pick up to two cubic yards of compost free for city residents. If you want to buy it already packaged, there is some charge for that. It is a good system because it is very high quality mulch. The tree is getting recycled, and it is not going into the landfill where it breaks down. It creates methane if the tree just sits there.”

For disposing of Christmas-tree lights, “LED lights and lights that use fluorescent bulbs of any kind are illegal to throw away. They have to be taken to a household hazardous waste facility because it is considered electronic waste. Incandescent light strings can be thrown away.”

Something to watch for next Christmas season: free LED light exchanges. Sharp says in early December of this year there were a few events around the city for people to exchange their old incandescent strands. “SDG&E offered a free LED light exchange this year. You could exchange your old incandescent strands for LED lighting, which is much more energy efficient and costs a lot less money to use, so you save on their energy bill.”

For more recycling information, check out I Love a Clean San Diego’s website wastefreesd.org or call 858-694-7000 if you are a city of San Diego resident, 877-713-2784 or 877-R-1-Earth if you are in an unincorporated community.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Birdwatching bonanza, earliest sunset of the year, bulb planting time

Venus shines its brightest
Next Article

San Diego seawalls depend on Half Moon Bay case

Casa Mira townhomes sued after losing 20 feet of bluffs in storm

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging...
Not only green when summer’s here,
But also when ’tis cold and drear...

Hubby Patrick heckled me with his singing because our Christmas tree’s leaves were anything but unchanging. I purchased the tree in that first surge of Christmas spirit I get every year before Thanksgiving weekend is out. Had Patrick been with me when I bought it, he would have picked out one with a thicker trunk. “Holds more water,” he’d have explained, “stays green longer.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

But Patrick wasn’t there, and I picked a pretty, perfectly shaped noble fir, which had a thin trunk and showed signs of drying out within a week. So I had to endure Patrick’s sarcastic caroling as I swept up a pile of amber needles from beneath the tree and hoped the guests due to arrive would only notice the glow of the lights, not the droopy branches of the tree.

That poor tree sat behind the greenery bin for another two months before I finally cut it up and threw it away.

That was last year. This year, the Kelly family is trying to be more organized. We bought a healthier tree, and we will dispose of it properly. Vance Sharp, project manager for I Love a Clean San Diego, filled me in on this year’s tree-disposal options. “In general, the rules are pretty much the same for each of the three major waste-haulers — Waste Management, EDCO, and Allied Waste — no matter what city you are in. As far as tree drop-off locations, the time and the dates are a little bit different from city to city. For all three waste-haulers, if you are a resident and you have a recycling bin, there will be curbside pickup for the two weeks following Christmas. If the tree is taller than six feet, you need to cut the tree up into four-foot sections and put it in the green waste bin, and the waste-hauler will pick it up.”

Those who don’t have a bin “should bring their Christmas tree to one of the drop-off locations in the city. There will be 16 drop-off locations all over the city, open from December 26 to January 23,” continued Sharp. “It is just for residents, and they can drop off their trees anytime during daylight hours. [Go to sandiego.gov/environmental-services/recycling/christmas.shtml for locations.] The basic rules for drop-off: no ornaments, no tinsel, no nails, no tree stands; it has to be the bare tree. And they will take natural as well as flocked trees.”

After pickup, the trees are deposited at the Miramar Landfill. “The trees all go to the greenery, where they are ground up and turned into mulch. The tree needs to be ground up and heated so all the pathogens — any bacteria or damage-causing insects — die. And they just grind it up into mulch at the greenery, and you can go and pick it up. You can pick up to two cubic yards of compost free for city residents. If you want to buy it already packaged, there is some charge for that. It is a good system because it is very high quality mulch. The tree is getting recycled, and it is not going into the landfill where it breaks down. It creates methane if the tree just sits there.”

For disposing of Christmas-tree lights, “LED lights and lights that use fluorescent bulbs of any kind are illegal to throw away. They have to be taken to a household hazardous waste facility because it is considered electronic waste. Incandescent light strings can be thrown away.”

Something to watch for next Christmas season: free LED light exchanges. Sharp says in early December of this year there were a few events around the city for people to exchange their old incandescent strands. “SDG&E offered a free LED light exchange this year. You could exchange your old incandescent strands for LED lighting, which is much more energy efficient and costs a lot less money to use, so you save on their energy bill.”

For more recycling information, check out I Love a Clean San Diego’s website wastefreesd.org or call 858-694-7000 if you are a city of San Diego resident, 877-713-2784 or 877-R-1-Earth if you are in an unincorporated community.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Birdwatching bonanza, earliest sunset of the year, bulb planting time

Venus shines its brightest
Next Article

Mang Tomas, banana ketchup barred in San Diego

What will happen to Filipino Christmas here?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader