The Examiner

Mahogany Builders clears and recycles ten miles

of Chicago alleys of Christmas trees

January 11, 2010

Ted Nelson

 Mahogany Builders cleared ten miles of Chicago alleyways on Friday of thrown away Christmas trees. Mahogany Builder’s Matt Lederer and his crew of four with three trucks spent over four hours on Friday combing the alleyways of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood and picked up discarded Christmas trees and then deposited them at the recyce center near the Peggy Nortebaert museum where those trees will soon be turned to mulch.

Many cities like New York and Minneapolis have programs where the city picks up the trees from resident’s property like garbage and then deposits them at recycling centers. In Chicago the city relies on the residents to make the effort and drop off their trees at various centers spread throughout the city. Many make the effort, but of course many do not and their trees are picked up by garbage trucks and are sent to landfills and/or incinerators, which cause a great amount of air pollution. 

Matt Lederer with Lakeview Alderman Tom Tunney
  

It is a good thing we have people like Matt Lederer. It is his message to us all that the private sector must pick up the slack as city and state governments cut back on certain programs. Mahogany Builder’s estimates they lost over $1,000 in revenue by donating their time that could have been used on projects that pay, gas, and worker's wages.

The city is lucky to have Matt Lederer’s fleet of trucks. They did their part when they cleared one Chicago neighborhood of discarded trees and now it is time for others to do the same.

Visit www.mahoganybuilders.com for more information on this green dedicated company.
 

Ted Nelson was recently named one of the top 101 Adventure Travel twitterers on twitter.