@FairHavenRes unfortunately the trees were going into the white garbage truck right along side the brown garbage containers.

On a related note, last week I watched a front loader slowly and meticulously pick up a Christmas tree, drive a block, and place it in a waiting dump truck.

Yes. Dpw is picking up Christmas trees for recycling. They do use regular trucks but only get trees on additional loops. Sometimes they'll put some behind the blade after a trash loop.