Christmas trees have been around since 16th century Germany, when devout Christians brought trees into their homes to celebrate Christmas. They used real trees cut fresh from a forest nearby, and brought them home to decorate with pine cones and candles. Nowadays, however, you can buy an artificial tree instead of cutting it yourself. Tree ornaments could be found in Walmart, Target, and other retail stores. And it isn’t only the ornaments you can choose; now, you can pick between two different types of Christmas trees: real, logged trees, or artificial, plastic ones.
Artificial Christmas trees and real Christmas trees each have their pros and cons. Pricing, looks, and authenticity all come into play. However, as consumers are becoming ever-more environmentally conscious, one of the growing factors to consider while choosing between the two is their impact on the climate, and our environment.
It may be common to think: Cutting down trees is not very good for the environment. Purchasing a reusable, plastic tree may be a better option. Andy Finton, the landscape conservation director and forest ecologist for the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, thinks differently. He told CNN that if artificial trees are used for less than six years, the carbon cost is greater than cutting down a tree. This is due to the fact that artificial trees are made of PVC, or polyvinyl chloride plastic. As plastic is a petroleum-based product, created in very polluting petrochemical facilities, transported around the world (most likely in fossil-fuel powered vehicles, thus contributing to pollution), these trees, in the short term, will contribute more to climate change than using real trees.
However, if an artificial tree was used for more than 6 years, it would be contributing less to climate change than using real trees for 6 years. Jami Warner, executive director of ACTA, states that this decision was made even after considering the watering and fertilizing of real trees, which takes around 7-8 years.
An artificial tree is also hard to dispose of. Sadly, the only way artificial trees meet their end are in landfills (taking hundreds of years to decompose) or incinerators, where they turn into poisonous gases that float into the atmosphere, or pollute the soil. Plastic trees can pollute the surrounding soil with chemicals, which hurts the surrounding biodiversity. The polluted soil can lead to plant deaths and will kill off animals in the resulting foodchain. As a result, this will kill off ecosystems and contribute to Earth’s climate change crisis.
A big benefit of real trees is that the seven years a Christmas tree takes to grow is spent absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. Although carbon dioxide is released when the trees are cut down, the farmers almost immediately replant them, counteracting the deforestation. However, growing a Christmas tree to full levels takes seven years, which offsetts the loss of biodiversity is a slow process.
Real Christmas trees don’t last too long after being chopped. That's why after the holiday season, many can be seen thrown onto the curb or sidewalk to rot. They then get brought to landfills, where they contribute to the emissions of methane - a greenhouse gas 80x more potent than CO2.