With all the talk out there on the net of saving the environment and carbon tradeoffs etc. Yet here we have so many people across the world, especially in the northern hemisphere, going out and cutting pine trees down using them like a boquet of flowers, and then a few weeks later throwing them out with the rubbish......
Where as here in Aus', we have an accepted tradition of using plastic christmas trees. Maybe this is in part due to the fact that these sticks with leaves are not lasting very long in our hot summer conditions, I'm not sure. But I am glad that this is one northern hemisphere tradition that we have discarded.
I don't even think there is a single 'Christmas Tree Farm' in whole of my state...
I would have to be grateful that the only real trees I have ever seen decorated for christmas have still had their roots attached, either as decorated potplants or as decorated trees which were still out in the garden....
So I would like anyone who is contemplating going out and buying a 'stick with leaves on', to stop and consider, do you really need to?.
Just because the Jones next door will be going out to the 'Tree farm' to buy a new bunch of needles on a stick as a loungeroom decoration every year.
Why not consider going to a department store and buy a pretend christmas tree. It will cost more the first year, maybe. At least I assume that there must be some places selling plastic christmas trees, you can't go anywhere here without seeing them for sale. Though you would have problems finding any 'fir bouquets' for sale.
But after this christmas is over you wont be throwing it out with the rubbish like a bunch of used flowers, but dismantling it and putting it away to be brought out next year, and the year after.........
Come on, everyone talks the talk, of doing whats right for the planet, yet stop and look at what you are doing especially at this time of year... Give the planet a present, and avoid cutting down one less tree.
Seed Newsvine
4 comments:
Now that's an interesting idea.
What's the more socially responsible thing to do, go to a tree farm and cut down a tree or go to Walmart and buy a plastic tree made in China?
Which one will cost more American jobs? Which has the largest carbon footprint? Which one is more difficult to reuse or recycle and causes the largest disposal problem?
Before I get myself in too much trouble here, I'm going to stop. It's a difficult question, and one not everyone agrees on.
When I grew up in the US, it was something our family often talked about at Christmas. We always ended up with a real tree, never plastic ones, but we did make a few attempts at live trees to be planted later.
Here in Amsterdam the city comes by in the new year, collects the trees and turns them into wood chips for gardeners.
I usually agree wholeheartedly with your posts. This one has be offering support for the real tree versus the plastic ones.
Here in the N. Hemisphere there are tree farms where trees are in varying degrees of 'readiness' for market. The trees themselves help to counter greenhouse gases. The farm is a source of jobs as well and does not spew harmful chemicals or gases, in the way the factory that manufactures plastic trees does. :-)
Sure, the plastic tree will save us a bit of money depending upon how many years we use it, but when it's time to get another one ... the plastic tree does not decompose in any way and simply fills the landfill, while the manufacturers continue to spew harmful chemicals into the atmosphere as they create more plastic trees. Real trees, often picked up and turned into chips for mulch, can still decompose even if they are 'trashed'.
Sorry, I guess my vote is for the real tree. :-) Thanks for listening.
Diane
There has been some massive debates in our local paper recently (Banyule Council, Victoria). There are plans to open a Christmas tree farm and there are many people opposed to it. Has been interesting following the debates.
I have no idea why anyone would want to kill a tree to use as an ornament. Then again I have a large pink plastic Christmas tree so my family have written me off as a nut anyway.
At last someone has stood up and argued the case for plastic trees! I try to be green AND I own a plastic tree. I've used the same one for 23 years. If I bought a real tree each year, it'd be 1 journey to choose and pick up the tree, plus another one to get it shredded for mulch (we don't have the space here in our UK garden to plant it out). Then there'd be the extra electricity used to hoover up all the needles, as I'm a committed minimalist houseworker. So I reckon that little lot would far outweigh the environmental cost of producing my plastic tree...
Merry Christmas!
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