# What is better for the enviroment: fake xmas trees or real ones? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 12, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757 "2006-12-12T00:45:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/1 "2006-12-12T00:45:20Z")
This is one of those ethical debates that I mull over every holiday season. Is it right to cut down a tree ( yes it is a crop grown specifically for harvesting, but _still_. just to stuff it, decorate it and then toss it out when it is done, even though recycling is done, many do not do this. However, real trees support local businesses. Though many Xmas tree farmers cannot sell you a Full Tree ( roots in a ball) because they need a special nursery licscense for that. ( I know, I’ve asked all the local xmas tree farmers around here.) Or is it more harmful to buy a plastic/fake tree because of all the chemicals involved and the fact it will never be bio-degradeable when its life span is finally finished ( 10-20 years or so.) and is probably supporting China. Discuss. FTR, we have a fake tree. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/2 "2006-12-12T01:39:50Z")
Christmas tree farms exist in the first place to grow and sell trees. They wouldn’t exist if people didn’t buy those Christmas trees, so it’s not like we’re wasting them. They were created to be “wasted” each holiday, so I’d say buying real trees would be more “ecologically friendly,” especially if you’d compare that to buying a fake tree and discarding it periodically. Same thing for normal paper and lumber. Most of those trees are specifically created because we need paper so it’s an ongoing, renewable, logical process. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/3 "2006-12-12T01:43:21Z")
Also, most Christmas trees grow for five or six years before harvest, so they’re converting carbon dioxide to oxygen and doing all the other tree things for several years. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/4 "2006-12-12T04:43:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Also, most Christmas trees grow for five or six years before harvest, so they’re converting carbon dioxide to oxygen and doing all the other tree things for several years. More to the point, if they’re just thrown out and landfilled, rather than, say, being burned, they’re going to be around in solid form for a long time, and thereby serve as a carbon sink. Yes, it seems odd that landfilling a thing might be the environmentally-friendly option, but it probably is, in this case. Of course, a year’s worth of Christmas trees is a negligibly small carbon sink in comparison with the amount of fossil fuels the folks using those trees will burn in that same year, but it’s something. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/5 "2006-12-12T04:47:00Z")
Eco-advice columnist [Umbra Fisk of Grist sez real trees are best](http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2004/12/08/umbra-tree/): > [@](#): > > You might be shocked to learn that I fell in love with artificial trees while researching this question. Fake-tree outlets have truly choice names: House of Trees, Christmas in America, Christmas Depot. The branches can hook or hinge or clip onto the trees, like a giant tinker toy, and you can order any tree you like, in a huge variety of genus and species. Even better, you can get a pre-lit tree or a pre-frosted tree (I think it’s supposed to look like snow, not icing) or a tree with a warranty. Now, that’s a family heirloom to which nature cannot hold a candle. (Petrified trees are so few and far between.) > > Imagine my devastation, then, while cruising around in the World Wide Woods, to discover that my newly beloved fake trees are PVC (polyvinyl chloride) in yet another guise. Such a brief, intense love affair. Remember: no on vinyl, and that’s final. We are boycotting vinyl to the greatest extent possible, people. The bright side is that it takes the debate out of the artificial Christmas tree dilemma. > > I’ve looked on site after site and called various places, and I can tell you that polyvinyl chloride is the monoculture of the artificial forest. Even worse, lead is apparently used to stabilize certain PVC products, which is why you’ll see a label on faux Christmas trees cautioning you to avoid inhaling or eating any bits of lead dust that may fall from the “branches” of the family heirloom. Now, I’m not saying you need to run screaming from the house, but between the lead and the vinylness, I just can’t support artificial trees. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/6 "2006-12-12T05:49:24Z")
Some places sell “living” trees, which still have their roots and you can plant them after the holidays are over. I always found it ironic that we celebrate the birth of a deity by using and then discarding like old trash a living organism. ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/7 "2006-12-12T15:50:28Z")
[QUOTE=BrandonR] Christmas tree farms exist in the first place to grow and sell trees. They wouldn’t exist if people didn’t buy those Christmas trees, so it’s not like we’re wasting them. They were created to be “wasted” each holiday, so I’d say buying real trees would be more “ecologically friendly,” especially if you’d compare that to buying a fake tree and discarding it periodically. Same thing for normal paper and lumber. Most of those trees are specifically created because we need paper so it’s an ongoing, renewable, logical process. [/QUOTE] The question is though, what would that land be if not a tree/lumber farm? Farming usually leads to less biological diversity than the land in its native state, although it is still preferable to that land being paved over. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/8 "2006-12-12T15:50:40Z")
Here, as in many locales, trees can be taken to a free lot where the Boy Scouts run them through chippers for use on trails throughout the area. ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/9 "2006-12-12T15:54:07Z")
Real trees always seemed a total waste to me, so one year I took branches that I had trimmed from a eucalyptis in the yard and lashed them together for a natural, re-use, no waste tree. It looked just like a regular tree in the photos, but after a few days the den smelled like Vick’s Vaporub. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/10 "2006-12-12T16:48:41Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Some places sell “living” trees, which still have their roots and you can plant them after the holidays are over. I always found it ironic that we celebrate the birth of a deity by using and then discarding like old trash a living organism. [/QUOTE] Yeah, the most eco-friendly position is the “live tree”, which comes in a big bucket and weighs a ton, what with the dirt and the large root ball and all. My wife’s boss used to get live trees every year, and one year she gave it to us after the holidays. Today, it’s planted to the side of our house, decked out for the holidays with nice outdoor lighting, and growing year by year. Between the two of the OP, though, a real tree would win, no contest. Reason: they rot, whereas a fake tree never will, and even if you get 50 years out of your fake tree, eventually it’s gonna have to make a trip to the dumpster, and it’ll never ever decompose. I understand that there are services that’ll run your old tree through the chipper and return the mulch to you for use in your garden or compost pile. That sounds like a winner to me. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-for-the-enviroment-fake-xmas-trees-or-real-ones/383757/11 "2006-12-12T17:37:57Z")
Ahem! ‘Real’ fake trees are made from wire and feathers, with a wooden trunk. Not plastic. My parents only recently stopped using theirs after over 60 years. It will come back out when their grandchildren are older.