Photo: NYC Parks / Daniel Avila

Mulchfest 2023 Chipping Weekend: January 7 and 8 – bring your tree and take a bag of mulch home! 

The holidays are fast approaching, and so is NYC Parks’ annual Mulchfest tree chipping celebration! Beginning December 26, New Yorkers can “tree”-cycle their trees at local parks, with convenient drop-off sites in all five boroughs. 

This year, Parks will be hosting one chipping weekend, where New Yorkers can actively mulch their holiday trees: January 7 and 8. On these days, residents can bring their tree to a chipping site, watch their tree be chipped, and bring a bag of nutrient-rich mulch home with them. Weather permitting, DSNY will also collect and compost trees left at curbs from Friday, January 6, 2023, through Saturday, January 14, 2023. 

Drop-offs begin at 73 sites citywide December 26, including: 

Bronx: 

Friends of Brook Park Community Garden 

Pelham Bay Park 

Van Cortlandt Park (at the Golf Course) 

Brooklyn: 

Prospect Park (at Prospect Park West and 3rd Street) 

McCarren Park 

Herbert Von King Park 

Manhattan: 

Dewitt Clinton Park 

Central Park (at W. 65th Street, W. 81st Street and E 106th St) 

Washington Square Park 

Queens: 

Juniper Valley Park 

Astoria Park 

Rockaway Beach (at Shore Front Pkwy and Beach 94th St) 

Staten Island: 

Conference House Parking Lot 

Clove Lakes Park 

Willowbrook Park 

For more information, including the full list of Mulchfest drop-off and Saturday chipping sites, visit: www.nyc.gov/mulchfest.  

Mulchfest 2023 will run from December 26 through January 8. New Yorkers will be able to drop off holiday trees at one of 73 sites – 34 are chipping sites – across the five boroughs, including parks and Greenthumb gardens. The trees are then chipped and recycled, and the mulch is used to nourish city trees and plants in every corner of the city.  

ABOUT NYC PARKS MULCHFEST: 

Mulchfest, part of the New York City holiday tradition, encourages New Yorkers to make greening a family activity—turning holiday trees into mulch which can be used for gardening and to increase soil fertility. For more than 20 years, Parks and DSNY have collected and mulched trees to help planting beds and community gardens around the city grow. Mulch maintains the health of our trees and plants citywide by deterring weeds, retaining moisture, preventing compaction, adding nutrients to the soil, and keeping roots warm. In recent years, Parks has mulched between 25,000 and 30,000 on average annually, with a record-setting 50,900+ mulched during Mulchfest 2020.