Chicago Sun-Times

Something Good in Wrigleyville

by Mark Konkol

Published January 8, 2010

Wrigleyville builder Matt Lederer is out to help the environment -- one dried-up Christmas tree at a time.

Rather than remodeling kitchens today, Lederer, 41, said he's sending his crews to scour neighborhood alleys to pick up discarded trees otherwise destined for a landfill.

They'll haul loads of old trees to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum for a proper death by mulching.

"I'm doing it for the environment because it's just the right thing to do," Lederer said. "Recycling the trees saves space in the landfill and [is] creating something, mulch, that will be good for the area."

Lederer, owner of Mahogany Builders, said he decided to turn his workers into alleyway recyclers for a day after years of scooping up a few brittle Christmas trees while on his way to mulch his own. This year, he hopes his guys recycle 100 trees. "Hopefully this might inspire other people to do simple things like this [for the environment]," he said.