Welcome back to the 12 Days of Sustainability – Day 8 A Real Tree
Bring Mother Nature indoors with a real tree this season! Fake ones (which are made from plastic) will take hundreds of years to break down. But don’t get just any tree: some growers use up to 40 different pesticides and even add chemical colorants. Ask your local Christmas tree grower about their practices or search for a sustainable farm near you. Besides using less pesticides, a sustainable farm will plant more trees than they cut down each year. And those that they do harvest will be selectively cut in patches to maintain healthy forests.
Hefty Carbon Footprints
Often produced and shipped from China, fake trees have a hefty carbon footprint — to the tune of up to 88lbs of CO2 per artificial tree, which is over 10X higher than that of a sustainably grown, properly recycled real Christmas tree. In fact, you would have to keep your fake Christmas tree for at least 10 years for it to have the same carbon impact as using a real tree each year — and that isn’t considering the environmental damage artificial trees cause as they slowly break down in a landfill.
More Trees, Please!
It takes around 7 years to grow an average-sized Christmas tree, and as trees grow, they absorb carbon and use 10x fewer resources than artificial tree factories. According to the Association of Christmas Tree Growers, for every tree that is cut down each year, 1 to 3 new seedling trees are planted.
Cleaner Air
Real Christmas trees, like any houseplant, help clean the air inside your home by removing dust and pollen from the air. So you’ll also be improving your indoor air quality, which is often reduced once everything gets sealed up for winter.
How to Recycle Your Tree
- Participate in a local tree recycling program if there’s one in your area
- If you have a wood chipper, chip the tree for free mulch
- Donate it to a local environmental organization, who may repurpose it for restoration projects like beefing up riparian areas, protecting fragile dunes, sheltering wildlife and more
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If your community does not have a curbside pickup program for recycling your Christmas tree, your best bet may be to compost it yourself or find a composter near you.
- Use the needles for crafts like evergreen potpourri, the trunk for natural coasters and more!
- Secure the tree outside in a spot that’s sheltered from wind to provide a winter shelter for small mammals and more
What are some of your favorite ways to #gogreen and
benefit our environment during the holidays?
