Artificial Christmas trees maybe better for the environment

Ōtautahi - Most New Zealanders are beginning to prepare for Christmas.  For those who celebrate, that often means figuring out what to do about a tree either a plastic tree or a traditional real pine tree.

For many people, a real tree represents tradition  but artificial trees offer convenience, since they can be reused year after year, the Washington Post says.

With more consumers becoming increasingly concerned about their purchases’ environmental impact, people wonder which type of Christmas tree is more planet-friendly.

While they might worry that chopping down tens of millions of trees each year amounts to an environmental nightmare, a real Christmas tree can be more sustainable than an artificial one. Or is it?

When they’re being cut, they’re being harvested in ways that they’re being replanted, so it’s a great renewable resource that provides lots of environmental, conservation and nature benefits.

Living trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen. It can take at least seven years to grow a Christmas tree to its typical height of between six and seven feet.

But there is an environmental cost to farming and distributing real trees. Growing trees require water and harvesting trees and shipping them from farms to stores or lots can produce emissions.

Still, real trees may be the preferred choice over artificial ones when it comes to overall sustainability.

Most of the artificial trees sold in New Zealand are manufactured in China and they are typically loaded onto fossil-fuel-burning ocean freighters.

Artificial trees are often made of plastic, a petroleum-based material, and steel. Many trees use polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which has been linked to health and environmental risks. Trees can also be made of polyethylene, another type of plastic.

But how do people dispose of a real trees after Christmas? If they you burn it, all that captured carbon goes straight back into the atmosphere so it is a seven year carbon cycle.

If they allow it to rot, it creates biogenic methane which carries a large warming punch over 20 years. If it goes to a landfill that captures and burns the methane and back to the seven year cycle.

On balance this may be a case where natural might not be best. If natural pine trees increases the likelihood of a house fire or allergic reaction needing medical treatment, the balance gets pushed toward a long life artificial tree, which can last at least 20 years.