Holiday Cleanup · Temecula Valley
Christmas Tree Disposal in Temecula: Curbside Dates, Flocked Trees, and What Happens If You Miss the Window
Every January I get the same call. Somebody has a dead tree on the side of the house, the green barrel truck already came and went, and they want to know if they blew it. Here is how the CR&R tree pickup actually works in Temecula, what a flocked tree changes, and the three ways to get rid of a tree once the free window closes.
Family-owned in Temecula since 2021 · Licensed & insured · Same-day and next-day pickups through January
Wild West Junk Removal · 41713 Niblick Rd, Temecula, CA 92591 · (951) 837-8072
Mon to Sat: 7AM-7PM · Sunday: Closed · Family-owned, licensed and insured · Serving Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee and southwest Riverside County
Free, but short
The CR&R Curbside Window: Roughly Three Weeks
If you live inside Temecula city limits, CR&R is your hauler, and they run a free Christmas tree pickup every year. There is no phone call and no sign-up. The tree truck follows the regular route. You just have to have the tree out on the right days, in the right shape.
The program starts on your first regular collection day after December 26 and runs a few weeks into January. The end date moves a little each year. I have seen it close as early as January 9 and run as late as January 19, so treat "mid-January" as the planning number and confirm the exact cutoff with CR&R at (800) 755-8112 or on the CR&R Temecula residents page once December rolls around. The City of Temecula also keeps the basics on its trash and recycling FAQ.
Dec 26
Pickup begins on your first regular collection day after this date
Mid-Jan
Typical close. Historically anywhere from about Jan 9 to Jan 19
$0
Cost for an unflocked, stripped tree set out inside the window
The part people miss
The window is measured in collection days, not calendar days. If your trash day is Monday and the program ends on a Friday, your last shot was the Monday before. Most of the "I missed it" calls I get are from people who counted to the end date and set the tree out two days after their last route.
Two minutes of work
How to Set the Tree Out So It Actually Gets Taken
CR&R's rules are simple, and the drivers hold to them because a tree with a stand still bolted on can wreck the grinder. Do these before you drag it to the curb.
- ✓Strip everything. Lights, ornaments, hooks, garland, and every strand of tinsel. Tinsel is the one that gets trees rejected. It is plastic, it does not compost, and it is nearly impossible to pull back out once it is in the pile.
- ✓Pull the stand. Metal or plastic, it comes off. Same for any nails or screws somebody put in the trunk.
- ✓Best case: cut it and put it in the green barrel. Pieces short enough that the lid closes. That is the version the driver never has to think about.
- ✓Can't cut it? Cut it in half and lay it next to the green barrel. Trees over about six feet need to be halved. Put it on the ground beside the cart, not in the street and not behind a parked car.
- ✓Skip the tree bag. Those plastic disposal bags are handy for getting the tree through the house without shedding. Take it off at the curb. A bagged tree is trash, not green waste.
Wreaths and garland made of real greenery go in the green barrel too, once the wire and ribbon are off. Artificial trees, artificial wreaths, and light strings are not green waste under any circumstances. More on those below.
The exception everybody asks about
Flocked Trees: Picked Up, Not Recycled
A flocked tree is one sprayed with that white fake snow. It sells well in a valley where it never snows. The problem is that flocking is a mix of cellulose fibers, adhesive, and sometimes fire retardant, and none of it belongs in compost.
In Temecula, CR&R will still collect a flocked tree during the holiday window, but it does not go to the organics facility. It gets handled as trash and ends up in the landfill. That matters for two reasons. First, if you set out a flocked tree in the green barrel, you are contaminating the load, and the driver can tag it and leave it. Second, if the free window has passed, a flocked tree cannot be cut up and fed into the green cart week by week the way a plain tree can. It has to go in the black trash cart, cut small enough to fit with the lid closed, or it has to be hauled.
Rule of thumb
Plain tree: green barrel, any time of year, as long as it is cut down and stripped. Flocked tree: trash cart or a hauler. There is no third path for flocking in Riverside County.
Some cities in San Diego County have stopped curbside flocked-tree pickup entirely and send people to drop-off sites. Temecula has not gone that far as of the last few seasons, but the rule that flocked trees are landfill, not compost, is universal across Southern California haulers. If you are buying a tree this year and want the easy exit in January, buy it green.
Where the tree goes
What Happens to a Tree That Makes the Window
Temecula's green waste, including holiday trees, goes to CR&R's anaerobic digester in Perris. The facility breaks the material down and pulls off renewable natural gas, which CR&R uses to fuel part of its own truck fleet, and what is left comes out as compost and liquid fertilizer. It is a solid system, and it is the reason the City can count your tree toward its organics targets under California's SB 1383 organics law.
That is also why the rules are tight. A clean, stripped fir is ideal feedstock. A tree with tinsel, a stand, or flocking is a contamination problem, and enough of those in one load can get the whole load diverted to the landfill. When the driver leaves a tree behind with a tag on it, that is what he is protecting.
Real trees are honestly one of the better things you can put in the green barrel. They are clean, they break down fast, and unlike a lot of yard waste, they are not tangled up with dirt and rock. I have covered where green waste from our own hauls ends up, and holiday trees follow the same road when we take them.
You blew the date. Now what
Three Ways to Get Rid of a Tree After the Window Closes
Missing the CR&R window is not a disaster. It just means the tree stops being free and starts being work. Here are the options, cheapest first.
Feed it into the green barrel over a few weeks
A stripped, unflocked tree is still green waste in February. Cut it into pieces short enough that the lid closes and it rides out with the normal organics pickup. A six-foot tree is usually two barrel loads, sometimes three if you leave the branches on. This costs nothing but a saw and a couple of Saturday mornings.
Take it to a county landfill yourself
Riverside County's landfills accept green waste for a fee. Lamb Canyon out in Beaumont is the closest county site to Temecula, and it is a real drive. You need a truck or a trailer, a tarp, and the willingness to wait in the line. Fees and hours are on rcwaste.org. I keep a full list of Temecula-area dump options and what they charge in Where to Dump in Temecula.
Have it hauled
We pick up trees through January and into February every year, usually bundled with the rest of the holiday mess. One tree by itself is a small job, so the math works best when you add the broken artificial tree from the garage, the boxes, the dead light strings, and whatever furniture got displaced by the new stuff. Flat volume pricing, no surprise on arrival. See our pricing.
The one option I would take off the list: leaving it on the side of the house until spring. That is the plan most people default to, and it is the worst one.
Why I push people on this
The January Problem: A Dead Tree Is Kindling
The National Fire Protection Association tracks home fires that start with Christmas trees, and the number that stuck with me is that more than a third of them happen in January. Not December, when the tree is fresh and watered. January, when it has been standing dry for three or four weeks and somebody plugs the lights in one more time or drags it past the fireplace.
Once the tree is out of the house, the risk does not go to zero. It moves. A dead fir leaning against a stucco wall next to the water heater closet, or stacked on top of the palm fronds behind the gate, is a pile of dry fuel sitting against your house. Around here that pile can sit until April with no rain on it. NFPA's disposal guidance says the same thing I do: use the community recycling program, and do not park the tree in the garage or leave it outside the house.
If the tree is already dry enough to drop needles when you brush it, it should be off the property this week, not next month. Cut it, cart it, or call somebody. Just do not stack it against the house.
This is the same logic behind the county's weed abatement and brush clearance notices. Dry vegetation within the defensible-space zone is the thing inspectors write up, and a dead Christmas tree is dry vegetation. If you have already had a fire clearance notice, do not give them a reason to come back.
When it makes sense to call us
What We Haul in January Besides the Tree
A single unflocked tree inside the CR&R window should go to the curb for free. I will tell you that on the phone. Where we earn the call is everything the curb will not take.
Flocked and oversize trees
Flocked trees after the window, twelve-footers that will not fit any cart, and trees still bolted into a stand nobody can get off.
Artificial trees and lights
Old pre-lit artificial trees are steel, PVC, and wiring. They are not green waste and not recycling. Same for tangled light strings and inflatable yard decorations that gave up. We take them with the load.
The post-holiday pile
Boxes, packaging foam, the couch the new sectional replaced, the old TV the new TV replaced. One trip for all of it, and the tree rides free on top.
We also work with HOAs and property managers in Temecula, Murrieta, and Menifee that end up with a stack of trees at the community dumpster enclosure every year, because half the residents put them out late and CR&R will not take them from a commercial enclosure. One scheduled pickup the third week of January clears it before the complaints start. Ask about that when you call, or read how we handle recurring property-manager pickups.
Weston Molitor
Founder · Wild West Junk Removal · Temecula, CAI started Wild West in Temecula in 2021 and I still run the truck. January is one of our busier months, and it is not because of trees. It is because of everything that comes out of a house after the holidays all at once. The tree is usually the smallest thing on the trailer. If it is the only thing, I will tell you to use the green barrel.
"The free pickup is a good program. Use it. Just count your collection days, not the calendar, and strip the tinsel."
Quick answers
Christmas Tree Disposal Questions
CR&R starts collecting trees on your first regular trash day after December 26 and runs the program a few weeks into January. The end date changes year to year and has landed anywhere from about January 9 to January 19 in past seasons, so confirm the current cutoff with CR&R at (800) 755-8112. Remember that it ends on your last collection day inside the window, not on the posted date itself.
The preferred method is to cut it into pieces that fit in the green barrel with the lid closed. If you cannot, cut the tree in half and lay it on the ground next to the green barrel on collection day. Trees over about six feet must be cut in half. Either way the stand, lights, ornaments, and all tinsel have to be removed first.
No. Flocking is a mix of fibers, adhesive, and sometimes fire retardant that does not compost. CR&R will still pick up a flocked tree at the curb during the holiday window, but it is treated as trash and sent to the landfill rather than the organics facility. After the window, a flocked tree has to go in the black trash cart in pieces or be hauled away. It should never go in the green cart.
Unflocked trees collected in the green waste stream go to CR&R's anaerobic digestion facility in Perris, where they are broken down into renewable natural gas that fuels part of CR&R's truck fleet, plus compost and liquid fertilizer. That is why the tree has to be clean. Tinsel, stands, and flocking contaminate the batch.
Three. Cut a plain tree into green-barrel-sized pieces and send it out with normal organics pickup over the next couple of weeks. Drive it to a Riverside County landfill such as Lamb Canyon and pay the green waste fee. Or have it hauled, which is cheapest when it goes out with the rest of the post-holiday junk. The one thing not to do is leave it against the house until spring.
Yes. Artificial trees are steel, PVC, and wiring, so they are not green waste and most recycling programs will not take them. We haul them along with light strings, inflatables, boxes, and anything else that piles up after the holidays. Call or text (951) 837-8072 for a flat volume quote.
Sources
Curbside collection dates are set by CR&R each season and can change; the window described above reflects recent years. Rules for unincorporated areas around Temecula (De Luz, Wine Country, Rainbow) may differ from the City program. Confirm with your hauler before setting a tree out.