You’re not fake. So why is your Christmas tree?
20+ Years
That’s how long you’d need to use your fake Christmas tree for it to be more sustainable than buying a real Christmas tree each year. But how long does the average consumer use their Artificial tree? Just 6 years. The average carbon emissions of purchasing a live Christmas tree each season is just one-third that of using a fake tree for 6 years. That’s like choosing between eating 3 plastic bags every year or eating just one. I mean I don’t want to eat plastic bags at all but if I had to choose is it even a choice? This 20-year number isn’t just based on carbon emissions. The use of resources and human health impacts play a role as well.
How it’s Made:
Real Christmas Trees
You might not realize it but that 7ft Christmas tree in your living room didn’t just pop up overnight. It can actually take up to 15 years to grow a 6-7ft Christmas tree! That’s 15 years of producing oxygen, providing animal habitats, and employing local farmers. At any given time 350 million real live Christmas trees are being grown on American soil. All are being maintained by local US farmers.
Artificial Christmas Trees
On the other hand, 80% of fake Christmas trees are produced in China. Of these Artificial trees, 10 million are shipped and purchased in the US each year. This adds unnecessary carbon emissions to the atmosphere and uses human and environmental resources to create more plastic. To top it all off the plastics used to make these trees often contain polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which produces carcinogens during both production and disposal.
Carbon Eaters
Around 30 million Christmas trees are cut and sold in the US each year. Many consumers believe by buying a fake tree they are saving a real Christmas tree from being cut down. That’s like buying fake apples to keep real ones from being picked. Like apples, Christmas trees are grown as a crop designed to be harvested and RE-PLANTED. What did we learn about plants in grade school? They eat carbon and they emit oxygen. What is there currently too much of in our atmosphere? Carbon. 2-3 Christmas trees are planted each year for every real Christmas tree that is sold. That’s 3 real live carbon-eating, oxygen-producing, greenhouse-fighting trees helping make our air a little cleaner. At Trees for Tuition, we take it a step further with our Tree for a Tree program. Every time we sell a Christmas tree we plant a forever tree. Not a crop but a tree that is designed to never be cut down.
Carbon Seepers
Plastic production is one of the most carbon-intensive industries on the planet. What do artificial trees happen to be made out of? Plastic. So, before these fake trees are even shipped overseas they have already started seeping carbon into our atmosphere. I think you already know that shipping anything requires carbon emissions. That means we also know that the longer the shipping distance the more carbon is emitted. Which is further, China to Atlanta or North Carolina to Atlanta?
Biodegradable & Recyclable
There are over 4000 local Christmas tree recycling programs throughout the US. You can see some Christmas tree recycling options in Atlanta on our tree recycling page, including our own service. Being organic matter that is grown in the ground not manufactured in a lab, real Christmas trees are both biodegradable and recyclable. Artificial trees on the other hand are next to impossible to recycle and certainly not biodegradable. So even if you manage to use your fake tree for 20, or even just 10 years, it will ultimately end up in the landfill. On the other hand real Christmas trees recycled in Atlanta end up being used in parks and public spaces. Would you rather your holiday centerpiece end up at the dump or in your local park?
Christmas Tree Price
This might be the only long-term category where artificial trees beat real Christmas trees. Over time you are going to spend more money by buying a live Christmas tree each year. But you get what you pay for right? Would you rather save a couple of bucks or help keep our environment a little bit cleaner over the long haul? For us, we choose the environment and that’s why at Trees for Tuition we believe keeping it real is than bein’ fake regardless of price. We hope to plant 2,000 forever trees in 2022. Make your tree more than just a tree this year. Make it a Trees for Tuition tree.
