Which choice is better for the environment?
By Sherry Lyons
I have debated the issue of real vs. fake Christmas trees in my head and with family and friends off and on for years. I loved the family tradition of going to a tree farm down the street, debating the merits of different trees on the lot, cutting it down and bringing it home. The pine smell filled the house and told us all that Christmas was on the way. Every year after the holidays, we were able to put the tree on the curb, as our town had a collection program. They would pick up the trees and chip them into bark mulch to use on the town properties in the spring. As a young mom, I felt that using a fake Christmas tree was a cop-out, creating waste that would end up in a landfill, with no happy tree-cutting memories or lovely smell to recommend buying one.
Now that I am older, an empty nester whose children do their own thing, I have a different perspective on the situation. Though I could cut a tree right on my property (free) or buy one from a nearby tree farm (the prices have risen tremendously in the past several years), a few years ago I chose to buy a pre-lit 4 ft Christmas tree at my mother’s urging. No kids around to make memories with, and the pine smell covered by a candle, we pull the tree out of the cellar year after year and decorate to our hearts content. My aunt recently decided that she didn’t want her 7 ft tall skinny Christmas tree, as she was getting a retro pink one, so we acquired that as well. Though the lights it came with no longer work, we just add strings of lights and it’s all good.
Today I researched the pros and cons of natural vs. artificial, and found a comprehensive discussion of the topic on Texas Disposal Systems’s website. There I found a very thoughtful well written explanation of the plusses and minuses of each choice. The upshot is that while artificial trees are good because you can use them over and over again for years, and then donate them to a charity for continued use if you get tired of them, they are made of materials that make them impossible to recycle, so they eventually end up in a landfill.
If you buy a real tree, you are paying for the years of maturation which include methods of cultivation that may require gas for the machines used and fertilizer for their growth. Then they need to be cut and transported, often from Canada and states in the northwest, using gas to get them to their destination. Then, making the choice of disposal can add to environmental woes, or not. If you drag one into the woods for bird and or submerge one into a lake for fish habitat (with permission), you can help the environment. If you chip it for your own use, or the town collects and chips it for theirs, the material of the trees is being used, which is positive, but the gas used to chip it is a negative. Burning a tree is the worst choice, as it just sends the carbon dioxide stored in the tree back into the environment.
So… natural or artificial? Weigh the pros and cons and decide for yourself.
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