MulchFest

Bring your holiday tree to Riverside Park to be recycled into mulch that will nourish plantings in the Park all year long! Join the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and the Riverside Park Conservancy staff to recycle your Christmas trees into wood chips.

These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. And here’s the best part – you can take a bag of Christmas tree mulch home with you!

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

1. Volunteer (on January 7)

Volunteers are needed to “de-Christmas” the trees left for recycling. We will be removing ornaments, lights, and getting the trees ready to chip. Then, we’ll spread Christmas tree mulch around street trees along Riverside Drive.

Please register on Eventbrite to volunteer and review our health and safety protocol below.

2. Treecycle (from December 26 – January 31)

Recycle your Christmas tree in Riverside Park. Drop your tree at any park entrance and we will bring it to our chipping site to be Treecycled. The chips from your tree will be used as mulch throughout the park. You can even take home a bag of mulch to provide warm winter protection for the street tree in front of your apartment. No need to register – just come on by!

More than 25,000 trees were recycled last year city-wide. Help us top this number!

**Note: Please remember to remove all lights and ornaments before bringing the tree to a MulchFest site. For more info on citywide tree drop-off and chipping sites, please visit https://www.nycgovparks.org/highlights/festivals/mulchfest.