Grinch Report: Christmas Trees Are Terrible for the Planet (and What You Can Do to Change That)
I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas
Photo courtesy of Buckrail.com
How did the celebration of humble birth on a moonless night turn into a kilowatt-crushing extravaganza of excess?
OK that was a rhetorical question. There’s not much point in speculating why things are the way they are. The bigger question is what can we do about it?
And let’s start with your Christmas tree.
Keep that Christmas Tree Out of Landfill
Estimates of the carbon footprint of the typical Christmas tree vary widely, depending on whether the trees are locally grown, shipped long distances, cut with chainsaws or harvested with handsaws. Irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides all fit into the equation.
One number that gets tossed about is 16 kg - a little over 35 lbs. of greenhouse gas that gets released into the atmosphere every time a Christmas tree goes to the dump.
To put it into perspective, that’s about as much greenhouse gas as your car spews on a drive from Los Angeles to Oxnard. This might not seem like a catastrophe but consider that about 30 million trees wind up in the landfill every year. That’s a lot of trips to Oxnard.
Recycling your tree, turning it into mulch or using it as a habitat for wildlife can reduce the carbon footprint to just 8 lbs.
Plastic Is 20 Times Worse
Your artificial tree isn’t doing any favors. The carbon footprint for fake trees is a whopping 88 lbs. - partly from the manufacturing and partly from the transport, all the way from the Pearl River Delta in China.
If you can keep the same artificial tree in service for 20 years or more you can reduce the footprint to that of a locally grown, hand-sawn tree that gets recycled.
But if you can’t make your fake tree last that long, try and get it into the hands of someone who can give it a few more years.
Ditch the Tree, Viva the Branch
A horticulturist suggests decorating with lots of greenery pruned from spruce, cedar and other conifers that thrive on pruning.
Grow Your Own
This is going to take more patience than most of us have. But let’s say you decide to grow your Christmas tree at home from a seed. Small trees can absorb as much as 13 lbs. of carbon per year - it should be said that a seedling will suck up considerably less.
But here’s something interesting - there’s research that suggests Christmas trees go out of their way to suck up methane. If that research bears out, growing your own Christmas tree could possibly be a way of reducing the very worst of the greenhouse gasses.
Offset Your Bad Habits
OK, you you’re a traditionalist and really don’t want to give up your Douglas fir trucked down from Oregon. Does that make you a bad person. Sure, you’ll recycle it. But still.
Consider offsetting your Christmas carbon footprint by planting trees. The Nature Conservancy has a Plant a Billion Trees project where you can contribute to rainforest reforestation.