Andrew and I were talking last night about an important issue of being "green". It is all the rage these days to lower your carbon footprint on the world. I have already made a post about that concerning my leg hairs. We were laughing and wondering if having a fake Christmas tree was greener than having a real one. Here are the key points to either one- then you can decide.
Fake Christmas Tree: made out of plastic - plastic is made from fossil fuels and doesn't bio-degrade in some cases. Some plastics can be recycled but we don't know of any place that recycles fake Christmas trees. A green point though to the Fake Christmas tree team is that you don't have to buy a new one every year and so you save a lot of trees from being cut down. In some case you can use the same fake tree for 15-20 years as we have proven by our dilapidated hand-me-down tree tree from Andrew's parents. Our tree looses more needles every year than it has some how and looks more and more like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
Real Christmas Tree: Here you are cutting down a tree. That cant be good for the environment. Also most of the time these get hauled off to the dump with the trash. Some places do recycle real Christmas Trees but they just turn them into firewood or make things out of them (in some processes making stuff like paper out of trees also uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of pollution.) A green point to getting a real Christmas tree though is that it can be recycled unlike most fake trees.
What do you think?
On a completely different topic- 3 days until we see New Moon! WHOOOOOOO!
15 years ago
6 Comments:
I had this conversation LITERALLY two days ago with Chris and Becky (who came to visit me--Yay!)
Real Christmas trees are usually grown on farms that grow trees specifically FOR the purpose of cutting them down every three years for Christmas. If the trees are from a local tree farm, and don't have to commute across country (using polluting shipping industry) then they're MUCH more green. The trees can be chopped up for firewood after, and are totally biodegradable. They don't use fossil fuels to make them, they don't take up landfill space, and they're replanted immediately by the tree farm. While they grow, they're cleaning up the air, and they smell so pretty.
Kudos to you, for real, for thinking green. I know many people think it's silly and a fad, but all of our children and future grandchildren deserve to inherit a world that we haven't trashed any more than we already have. Chris and I are going to put solar panels on our house when we get to Colorado, we're going to raise chickens for their eggs, and we make an effort to use only environmentally friendly products (like 100% recycled paper plates when we have to use them). I applaud you for thinking about it. It makes me happy :)
So, in conclusion, yay for you AND yay for locally grown real trees.
So I was just reading today in a free magazine, that's all about being green, which personally makes my head hurt. They said natural trees are better because they can be recycled into compost, and artificial ones never die in the landfill.
Side note- The whole green movement bugs me, because which idea are we supposed to think is most important- reduce waste, carbon energy used, reuseable or recycleable? Most of the time any clear opinion on the matter wants you to buy something.
I'm most into the reduce waste, because if I don't buy it twenty times, I'm reducing the waste of my MONEY! So we're all about the plastic tree, because we're only ever buying one big one, and the mini ones we used at BYU is just more decoration around here. So I say poo poo to cutting down trees.
just so I don't sound like a total green grinch, I recycle all the time and keep my food containers and use cereal boxes for gift boxes, reuse party decorations, and take showers every other day (you know, not because I'm lazy, it's for the environment!). All these things reduce waste and reduce money out of my wallet. Just so your blogging readers don't think I hate mother earth.
one little side-note...What would happen if we never cut down trees???I can answer that....forest fires! While genuine arguments can be made for positive points to forest fires (jobs for firefighters.....fertile soil..ok I ran out) I think the smokey air is a drag, and it kills lots of little forest critters, and its really ugly for a long time afterwards. So, as long as people are thinning trees in the forest and not clear cutting them out...I think its fine and dandy to cut down a tree. (but I am more into saving my own green right now and have a handmedown fake tree)
My sister brought up a problem with real trees. They bring in 30 percent more mold into your house than a fake tree. That equals more need for good filters if you have any kind of allergies or respiratory problems. Plus mold - gross. We had a hand me down fake tree that was 15-20 yrs old from Andy's parents. It looked like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree - if fake ones can last even that long when they used to make them so poorly - then isnt that an issue to consider. This year we are borrowing a friend's fake tree while they are out of town for Christmas visiting family.
The Spiteful Chef makes a good point that I was thinking of, which is most christmas trees are specifically grown to be cut down and sold for christmas trees, so buying a tree is a great way to support your local economy and totally green. However, it's definitely not cheaper. Buying a fake tree that will be used for years to come is cheaper and better for your savings. And produces less mold and other undesireable agents in your home. And it will never go brown before you get through the holidays. So, if you use your plastic tree for a long time, I'd say it's not exactly environmentally hostile to have one. It just depends on what you want to support more. Your savings or the local nursery. Happy Christmasing!
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