My brother once read somewhere on the Internet that it’s better to have a real Christmas tree than a fake one. The article said that real trees come from farms, so there’ll always be an abundant of them, year after year. Fake trees end up in landfills, which is not a good thing.
I’ve been wondering about that. Real trees can land up in landfills too, sure they can decompose, biodegradable, but as mentioned in a previous post regarding paper bags, organic decomposition releases carbon dioxide. Therefore, a bunch of real trees decomposing will produce carbon emissions, which is not something that we want to do. Plastic trees, same as plastic bags, will not release anything in landfills, they just will stay around for a very very long time.
Real trees can be recycled. In New York City, trees are collected by the Department of Sanitation and chipped into mulch for distribution to parks, playing fields, and community gardens. That’s not much of a recycling effort, since it’s just making the trees into smaller pieces for further decomposing. At least it serves some function in the meantime.
Fake trees can be recycled too, plastic can be reused into other materials. However, it’s just that currently, it’s not widely done. They do end up in landfills if thrown out. However, most people don’t buy a plastic tree, use it once, and throw it out. After the season is over, they get packed into the box that it came in with, then stashed away for the next season. In places where I’ve worked and working now, they’ve been using the same fake tree year after year. As long as they keep getting reused, they’re not contributing to the landfills.
According to an analysis done by an outside organization commissioned by the American Christmas Tree Association, the carbon footprint of using either tree is negligible. Real trees, of course, can only be used for the current season. If the plan is to get one tree and use it for as long as possible, then a fake tree works best, the minimum use is 7 years to be “green.”
Of course, there are supporting arguments for both sides. Fake trees are typically made in China and it uses more energy to transport to the United States. There’s also the manufacturing process that is damaging to the environment. On the other side, real trees require fertilizers and pesticides to grow. Unless the tree farm is certified organic, apparently, there’s an organic farm in Oregon. Oregon produces the most Christmas trees in the nation. There’s also the whole process of cutting them down and transporting them to their designated markets.
In the world of transportation logistics, it is quite efficient to ship fake trees from China to the United States. There are so many vessels circling the Pacific Ocean, it doesn’t matter that a few more containers get loaded onto the ship bound of the United States. These containers will be loaded with all the other consumer goods coming for the United States; electronics, clothing, floor tiles, dried foodstuffs, and everything else that is made in China these days. No new ships get added for the holiday season and taken out of service afterward. The complexity of rotating container vessels is a whole topic on its own that can cover many pages. Once the containers reach the ports, usually on the West Coast, they will get railed to the major markets. It’s not until the last few hundred miles of their journey that the merchandise will get moved by truck. Ocean containers are typically not moved across the United States on the road.
Real trees, however, need to move fast. Once they’re cut, the clock starts ticking before the pine needles start falling off. In term of “moving fast,” I mean it quite literally. I used to attend the University at Buffalo, on one of my trips back to New York City for the holidays, a flatbed truck loaded with Christmas trees was flying down the Interstate. It was a snowy night on this road, this truck went by so fast, I was pushed partially onto the shoulder. As it kept going, I see cars ahead of me getting pushed over as well. The logistics company I’m working for now recently shipped a couple hundred of live trees to Hong Kong, it went by airfreight. Carbon footprint of an airplane is much larger than a cargo ship when compared to a per kilogram of goods moved. There are added flights for the holiday season, mostly in the form of chartered flights. Live trees are largely moved over the road, carbon footprint from trucks are much larger than trains per kilogram of goods moved. A truck with a two-man team can get from Oregon to New York in 3 days. It can take a train up to a week and a half to cover that same distance. The big difference is because the train makes stops along the way to offload and load more cargo, the truck only stops for fuel and for the drivers to get food and shower.
The real damage to the environment, is customers driving to go get the tree. If one drives 60 miles round trip to go pick up a real tree, it is more damaging than driving 5 miles to get a fake tree. If that fake tree gets used for 7 years, then that’s more environmentally friendly than getting a real tree. In New York City, it is possible to walk down the block and pick up a real tree, best mode of transportation of all. My question is, “Are they using plastic netting to wrap the trees with?”
So what’s the conclusion? It’s up to you. Get a real tree close to home and dispose of it properly. Or get a fake tree close to home and use it for the next 10 years. 10 years later, we will hopefully have better recycling methods. Another environmentally damaging concern is how the tree gets decorated; with a lot of energy sucking electric lights, or just very sparkly ornaments using ambient light? Let’s leave decorations alone this time.
Enjoy the holidays, have fun with your friends and family, and don’t worry too much about using a fake or real tree. Compared to the grand scheme of things, they’re negligible.
NYC Christmas Tree Recycling Program
O Christmas Tree – http://youtu.be/b3d6JMLaRzQ
tklliang 
Well, we have had the fake Christmas tree 20 years. We have saved a lot of money, because we do not have to buy every Christmas a new one. Simple.
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