Now we know
How about just planting a tree in your yard and never cutting it down
clipped from
green.yahoo.comNothing says "Christmas" like the smell of pine in your living room on a winter morning! But is that smell really "green" or is it bad for the planet? Is it more environmentally responsible to buy a fake tree and use it year after year? What about keeping a live tree for Christmas? Let's look at the options one by one.
If you want a tree for the holiday, the experts at
Grist and
TreeHugger say it's actually better to buy a cut real Christmas tree than an artificial tree.
Why? In a word, plastics. Fake trees are made of
polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Producing this type of plastic creates a lot of pollution, and PVC is
difficult to recycle.
Farmed Christmas trees are ultimately a renewable resource. Growing trees absorb carbon dioxide, and after the holidays, the trees can be recycled into mulch. Check
Earth 911 to see where to take your dead tree after the 25th.