R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press City of Escanaba Department of Public Works employees Jake Gartland and Jason Braun load Christmas trees that have been deposited by the public at a collection point in Ludington Park into the city’s new woodchipper. From here they will be brought to the Delta County Landfill to be recycled from compost to topsoil.

\ESCANABA — It smelled like Christmas again — freshly cut pine — in the parking lot behind the Karas Bandshell in Ludington Park on Tuesday. Amidst falling snow, pulverized pine, spruce and fir flew through the crisp air on its journey from a woodchipper into the back of a truck.

The equipment, new to the City of Escanaba as of this past year, simplifies a task for Department of Public Works (DPW) employees whose job it is to collect and transport Christmas trees for recycling after the holiday. At the Delta County Landfill, what remains of the trees becomes compost, which in turn makes topsoil to be used around the landfill.

Near the bandshell at the south end of Ludington Park, signs for the “XMAS TREE DROP SITE” direct people to the parking lot between Loren W. Jenkins Drive and the water. It’s one of two collection points designated by the City of Escanaba for this purpose; the other is by Lemmer Elementary School on 8th Avenue South.

Residents may also bring their spent trees and other brush directly to the compost location at the landfill at 5701 19th Ave. N., which is where the city takes their truckloads when the chipbox fills up, said Director of Public Works Kent Dubord.

“In years past, we would either take a garbage truck over there and throw (the trees) in there and then pack ’em in with the garbage truck and dump ’em at the landfill,” said Dubord, “or we’d take a loader down there with a dump truck and bring ’em to the landfill.”

The city owned a smaller chipper that they would use for other jobs, DPW employee Jason Braun explained, but it wasn’t able to handle whole trees. Since the acquisition of the Bandit 15XP chipper in March and the Ford F750 forestry truck in December, brush recycling is more streamlined and the capacity greater.

“We just put the tree in there, it chips it right up, and it’s made it a lot more efficient on chipping them up compared to years past,” said Dubord.

Just as trees must be free of lights and other non-compostable materials, so too should other brush. Braun pointed to a wreath that had improperly been left at the drop site; in addition to a decorative red bow, the metal frame within the wreath prevented it from being recycled.

At the compost site at the landfill, there is an area for brush, where trees can be deposited — again, free of inorganic materials.

Terri Rabitoy, administration manager for the Delta Solid Waste Management Authority, said that they have the brush at the landfill chipped once or twice a year.

“We have a company come out and chip it, so we have to have a certain amount before they’ll come out,” she explained.

From the composting area, the organic matter is repurposed around the landfill.

“We push all of that up into compost windrows, and we have to keep temperatures on it, and we turn it so that it turns into topsoil,” said Rabitoy. “We have to keep daily cover on the landfill, and so we use it to put cover on the landfill to save the county money … so we don’t have to purchase cover, like sand.”

In addition to providing the state-required landfill cover, compostable material may also be used for things like filling in roads.

The City of Gladstone also welcomes people to drop off Christmas trees at their own compost site, which is located on 29th Street, north of Cameron Elementary School.