Mountains of Christmas Trees / Berge der Weihnachtsbäume

There are some things that people must just know from living in a place. Like the fact that religious holidays pop up on a regular basis and you better keep a supply of food in the house just in case. Or the fact that Salzburg drivers will always stop at a crosswalk for you even if they are speeding along rapidly mere feet from the crosswalk. (How they come to a stop without screeching or jerking is another well kept secret.)

Old Christmas trees seem to be another of those things. There are mountains of old Christmas trees everywhere. Presumably they will be picked up at some point, but by who? And how do the picker-uppers know where to go? And are there special alloted places that you are supposed to put your old Christmas tree? It's not like the mountains are by garbage cans. They seem to be scattered around the residential areas completely randomly, but maybe there is a logic that we simply don't understand.

Peter deposited our Christmas tree (in the dark of night) in a pile by the parking area around the corner. Many of those trees were cast away standing up, so they look like a miniature forest. Then there is a pile squashed between a fence and a bush, hard to see if you don't know to look. And there is a pile on the tiny patch of lawn by another parking area. The mountain of trees in this photo is the largest near our apartment, growing around a cement pylon, on the side of the road. There are a dozen or more trees here, piled almost as high as the bushes behind it, waiting for something. But what?