A number of people on my street have left their Christmas trees on the curb, hoping that the city will pick them up. However, the city of Los Angeles doesn't seem to be in a rush to get them, as many have been lying on the street for more than five days. I wasn't going to contribute to this mess and I wanted to make sure that my old tree would be properly disposed of, so I took it to a nearby fire station, one of the locations where the city's Bureau of Sanitation has placed large bins to collect and recycle discarded Christmas trees. The Honda Accord Crosstour was more than up to the task of tree recycling.
The two levers in the trunk made it easy to flip the seats back without having to reach too far inside. Once I removed the cargo cover, my 5-foot tree fit inside with room to spare. Maximum cargo capacity with the seats down on this car is 51.3 cubic feet. Our Crosstour was equipped with a rubber cargo tray, which caught most of the pine needles that fell off the tree. But I covered the exposed part of the seats with a towel just to be safe.
It was a short drive to the fire station, but I enjoyed my first time driving the Crosstour. It made a great impression.
Ron Montoya, Consumer Advice Associate @ 17,789 Miles
firstwagon says:
12:49 PM, 01/11/11
I brought mine home this way but it's way to messy to get rid of it inside the car.
I tossed mine in my utility trailer and took it to one of the charities chipping trees for fund raising.
isaacl says:
12:49 PM, 01/11/11
Wow. So you.....so you threw the thing in the car straight up? bare back? needles and all? How bad was clean up after that?
legacygt says:
12:50 PM, 01/11/11
Added bonus: no need to hang an air freshener from the rear view mirror.
altimadude05 says:
12:51 PM, 01/11/11
Behold the usefulness of a hatchback! Hauling away your own tree is one way to needle your neighbors. That trunk has things all wrapped up. Beyond that, this post is sappy.
robert4380 says:
12:59 PM, 01/11/11
Needles are easy to clean up. It's the sap that'll get ya. Honestly, how hard would it have been to get one of those plastic tree bags and wrap it in that before cramming it into the back of the Crosstour? Now you've got sap and needles from a $35 tree messing up your $30k vehicle.
rm2008 says:
01:36 PM, 01/11/11
The rubber cargo tray caught all the needles and there wasn't any residual sap.
-Ron
hybris says:
03:37 PM, 01/11/11
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that in California neighborhoods don't have community bonfires to burn their trees in a civilized manner. Instead they either let the city grab the tree or haul it to a dumpster, what a waste of good burnable wood.
misterfusion says:
10:15 AM, 01/12/11
@Hybris: I guess I'm surprised that there are cities that still allow bonfires. I know that New Mexico, for example, places limits on the amount of burning that people can do (due to air pollution, fire hazard, etc.). I assumed that most cold-weather states had similar regulations.
Besides, isn't burning the trees a much bigger waste (i.e. less "civilized") than recycling the trees for pulp, which is what the city does?
@Ron Montoya: Los Angeles does have free "bulky item disposal" of things like old furniture or Christmas trees, but there are a limited number of crews as you can imagine. If items have been left out on your street for too long, just call 311 and report it.