Getting rid of that used tree
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on December 29, 2009 1:46 PM
As the holiday season comes to an end, thousands of Wayne County households will begin packing away Christmas decorations to be used next year.
But those who made sure a fresh tree was part of their 2009 display will not have the luxury of storing it -- at least not for much longer than a few more weeks.
Wayne County and Goldsboro officials are aware of that fact and are making sure residents have a way to dispose of their Christmas trees.
Simply drag them to the curb, city officials said.
Mount Olive residents can do so, too, said Mount Olive Town Manager Charles Brown. The trees will be picked up on Tuesdays on the west side of town and on Wednesdays on the east side.
In Pikeville, Christmas trees will be picked up on Tuesdays. And in Fremont, trees will be collected on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Goldsboro Public Works Department employee Linda Bradford said the city will be hauling Christmas trees during residents' regular leaf and limb day, which is also the day their recycling is picked up. No additional arrangements need be made, she added.
Because city offices will be closed Friday for the New Year's Day holiday, all sanitation services scheduled for Friday will be serviced on Wednesday.
Wayne County residents will be able to take their trees to the county landfill located off of Durham Lake Road at Dudley.
Trees will not be accepted at the county convenience sites, which are not set up to handle them, said Wayne County Solid Waste Director Tim Rogers.
Rogers said trees will be accepted at the landfill through the end of January.
"We will not put them in the landfill," he said. "We will have a designated area where we can recycle them."
Most of the county's residents who live outside a municipality either haul their trash to a convenience site or the landfill themselves or pay companies like Waste Industries to do so.
Waste Industries will not collect used Christmas trees, said company spokesman Linda Boykin.
"We do not pick up the trees at all," she said, adding that customers are responsible for disposing of their trees themselves.