A Carbon-Neutral Christmas
As the Christmas season approaches, consumers will be faced with a choice: whether to buy a real Christmas tree or the reusable artificial option. While this choice may seem simple, it gets more complicated when you look at it through a conservational lens.
If you are conscious of your carbon footprint, you may be wary of investing in non-biodegradable metal and plastic. In 2020, a Nielsen Harris poll was conducted in the US on behalf of the National Christmas Tree Association. The findings revealed a relatively small price difference between the purchase of a live tree and an artificial one. The median price of a live tree was $76.87, while the median price of an artificial tree was $66.43. Price differential aside, you may be concerned about deforestation or the carbon effects of transporting and disposing of your real or artificial Christmas trees. Choosing your Christmas tree might take a bit more thought.
My family has always chosen a real tree, our house smells like fresh pine, and it brings an authenticity to the seasonal celebration. After Christmas, since the trees are biodegradable, we chop off the branches and place the remains in our green bin for wood chip and mulch disposal by the city. Large numbers of people around the world make the same choice. In fact, around 90 million live trees are sold each year in the United States and Europe alone. What kind of negative environmental impact does this practice cause? Well, in order to meet such a demand, farmers need to invest heavily in resources for tree growth. This results in usage of a staggering amount of water, and the use of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that leech into the surrounding environment. Additionally, some species of Christmas trees are non-native, and require far more resources to grow. If choosing a real tree is so impactful on the environment, what is the alternative?
Many people and commercial establishments across the world choose to decorate their spaces with reusable metal and plastic Christmas trees. These trees don’t require massive resource-burning farms, and last as long as you are willing to use them. Why not just go with this option? Artificial Christmas trees are usually made of PVC, or petroleum based polyvinyl chloride. This plastic is non-biodegradable and non-recycleable, meaning that once you’ve decided to stop using the tree, or it reaches the end of its lifespan, it will join the ranks of non-biodegradable materials littering our landfills. Because of this, artificial trees produce far more greenhouse gases and pollute the surrounding environment with leeching chemicals. Lastly, unlike real Christmas trees, artificial trees are generally not produced locally. Most artificial trees are produced in developing countries, then shipped to prosperous nations. The resulting carbon cost in travel alone is astronomical.
Read these articles for more information about the choice between real and artificial trees:
https://earth.org/real-vs-fake-christmas-tree-environmental-impact/
https://realchristmastrees.org/2020/04/06/the-real-story-about-the-price-of-christmas-trees-in-2019/
How to help:
1. Decorate a living outside tree with wildlife friendly ornaments.
2. Buy or rent a live potted tree from a local nursery or family-owned farm to reduce transportation costs.
3. Reutilize the trunk as firewood.
4. Purchase a secondhand artificial tree that will be used for at least 12 years.
