Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
John Hollenhorst ReportingHave you noticed that the Christmas spirit is hanging around a little longer than usual this year? At least, it's hanging around on curbs in Salt Lake City. Thousands of Christmas trees are still waiting to be picked up, almost three weeks after the holiday.
It's part of a new strategy by Salt Lake City's holiday cleanup crew. They figured out they could save gas if they give people more time to put their trees out on the curb.
Finally, a white Christmas, in the middle of January. It's a good thing there are still plenty of Christmas trees around to make the most of it. So, will they ever be gone?
Rachae Read, S.L.C. Resident: "It has crossed my mind, but it's something else for the dogs to pee on besides the light posts, ha ha."
The trees in Salt Lake City are hanging around two weeks later than usual. Usually the city collects trees the first week in January and hauls them to the landfill where a big hungry machine called Hogzilla grinds them up into mulch. This year, though, the city figured out how to save gas money in Salt Lake neighborhoods.
Nikki Bown, S.L.C. Public Services: "We needed to streamline the process. And we noticed that most of the trees were being put out at curbside during the middle of January."
In other words, city trucks went too early in previous years and often had to go back to pick up straggler trees. So this year, they won't even start until January 16, next Monday. They'll pick up trees on the west side next week, and the east side in following weeks.
Nikki Bown: "So if you already have your Christmas tree out, that's fine, leave it there, leave it curbside, keep it out of the street and we'll be by next week."
There are hazards in allowing the trees to pile up on the curb. In one neighborhood someone used Christmas trees as fodder for a practical joke.
Rachae Read: "And the entire front of our porch and our steps, all the Christmas trees in our block were piled up. And we were oblivious to this while we were sitting in there watching this movie. So we just have a neighborhood with a good sense of humore."
In many parts of the valley, tree pickups or drop-offs have already begun. In each city, it's a little different.
