For those of you expecting Santa to be particularly generous this year, it happens that this weekend is “Material Saturday” in Lowell. Old TVs, mattresses, appliances, and a number of other hard-to-dispose-of items can be dropped off (some require a small fee) at the Lowell Regional Waste Water Utility at 451 First Street Blvd between 8 am and noon on Saturday.  For more info, click here.

Lowell Boy Scout Troop 23 is again picking up Christmas trees in return for a donation (usually $20 or $25) as part of a fundraiser.  It’s a bit tricky being in a big building; one year we had them phone us and we brought the tree down to them at the loading dock, another year we left it outside the front entrance and taped a check to the front door.  But I’m sure you can work something out if you’d like to avoid hauling the tree off yourself.  More info can be found here.

If you’d rather just get rid of the tree yourself, you can find the city information about drop off sites here.

Please remember to wrap your tree in something (an old sheet always works for us) before taking it out of the building—a dry tree will leave needles everywhere!  And trees should be brought down in the freight elevator, not the front one.  Thank you, everyone, for being considerate of your neighbors.