Lynchburg’s Christmas tree pickup starts Wednesday

Lynchburg is gearing up for its last remaining chore of the holiday season: Christmas tree chucking.

The city expects to see thousands of trees discarded this year as residents part with the final remnants of their holiday celebrations.

Collection is set to begin Wednesday and will continue through the end of the month. Trees picked up by the city are ground into mulch and spread over refuse at the Concord Turnpike landfill.

Officials expect to collect somewhere around 18,000 trees. Public Works Director Dave Owen said the cast-offs yield hundreds of thousands of pounds of mulch — enough to see the landfill through one or two months.

Free curbside pickup begins this week. Residents on the Monday and Tuesday trash routes will see their trees collected this Wednesday.

Those on the Thursday and Friday schedule can expect their trees to be collected Wednesday, Jan. 14.

Trees can still be placed on the curb after those dates provided they have a 95-cent trash tag.

Free drop-off points will also be established at:

- Riverside Park (parking lot next to tennis courts)

- Miller Park (parking lot to left of main entrance)

- Fort Hill Shopping Center (recycling site)

- Peaks View Park (parking lot next to upper tennis courts)

- Concord Turnpike Regional Landfill

Those collection points will remain open until Jan. 31. For more information, contact Citizens First at 856-2489.