Redmond Boy Scout Troop 557 and others to collect, recycle Christmas trees

Each December, when most people are setting up their Christmas trees, Boy Scout troops across the Eastside and Seattle are gearing up for one of their biggest yearly projects. Each year, boys canvas neighborhoods throughout Redmond, picking up Christmas trees after the holiday.

December 22, 2015 3:25 pm
Members of Redmond Boy Scout Troop 557 recycle Christmas trees last year.
Members of Redmond Boy Scout Troop 557 recycle Christmas trees last year.

Each December, when most people are setting up their Christmas trees, Boy Scout troops across the Eastside and Seattle are gearing up for one of their biggest yearly projects.  Each year, boys canvas neighborhoods throughout Redmond, picking up Christmas trees after the holiday.

Scouts go out into assigned neighborhoods and collect trees left on the curb by residents. Donations received for Christmas tree-recycling services are used to help fund troop events, outdoor activities and educational programs for the upcoming year.

Many donations come from people who previously participated in scouts programs during their own childhood. During the course of collecting trees, scouts usually visit with former scoutmasters, former Boy Scouts of all different ranks and from different countries, and former scouts from Troop 557. In the Trilogy neighborhood, where 557 collects, the boys have had the opportunity to meet men who achieved the Eagle Scout rank 30 or more years ago.

For Troop 557, Christmas tree recycling is the only fundraiser the boys do during the year, so the boys work hard and spend three days working to collect trees. The suggested donation amount is $15 per tree.

Troop 557 will be collecting trees on Jan. 3, 2016 as well as the following weekend, both Jan. 9-10.

Troop 557 also operates a collection station at the QFC Bella Bottega parking lot located at Northeast 90th Street and 161st Avenue Northeast. Trees will be collected there from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 3 and Jan. 9-10. It is not uncommon to see people dragging a tree from a nearby neighborhood to the collection site where boys remove any stray decorations and load trees into a collection trailer.

Their website at www.Troop557.org provides information about Christmas tree pickup.

“We are grateful for our community partners — QFC for the use of their parking lot for collection, All Wood Recycling for the recycling services they provide for Troop 557 and many other Redmond troops and Greenway Landscape Services, Inc. for use of their trailers during our collection,” reads a press release.

Last year, the boys found an ornament on a tree they had collected — it had a girl’s name and the year 1984. The troop contacted the homeowner’s association where the boys thought the tree had come from. That community sent out a notice in a community newsletter, and they were able to locate the owner of the sentimental ornament and return it to them.