In these eco-conscious times, many people want to shrink their environmental footprint while still enjoying the trappings of the holiday season. In some cases, the earth-friendly alternative – pass the tofurky – is a pretty obvious choice.
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The (real) 74-foot Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York. But in others, the answer is not so clear. When it comes to Christmas trees, for instance, which is better for the planet: the long-lasting artificial kind, or the freshly cut, pine-scent-and-sap variety?
As I report in Saturday’s Times, at least one major study found that the real tree is probably the better choice. But as I found during my reporting, many consumers still believe that a faux fir is less harmful to the environment than the real thing.
That’s because an artificial tree can be used again and again, unlike a real tree, which is tossed out at the end of the season. Yet as it turns out, that’s not enough to tilt the scales in the faux fir’s favor. The resources used to make artificial trees — plastic and metal — have a high extraction cost, and most trees are made in China, meaning they need to be shipped thousands of miles before they reach American shores.
Real trees are also biodegradable and can be composted or turned into mulch; fake trees are almost all fated to end up in a landfill one day.
Artificial Christmas trees continue to sell by the truckload, of course — according to industry estimates, sales in the United States may hit 13 million this year.
Most faux trees have a lifespan of about six to 10 years, surveys have found, at which point they start to look a bit ragged and consumers chuck them out. At this point, they’re off to the landfill.
What about recycling? I posed this question to Jami Warner, executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association, which represents makers of artificial trees.
“All the materials in an artificial Christmas tree are recyclable and trees are recycled now,” Ms. Warner wrote in an e-mail.
Technically, this might be true. But all the municipal recycling programs I queried said they did not recycle artificial trees — and for good reason: artificial trees are largely made from polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which is in most cases prohibitively expensive to recycle. I mentioned this fact to Ms. Warner, who said the onus rested with the cities, not her industry.
“Ultimately trees are likely to end up in landfills until cities offer recycling programs,” Ms. Warner wrote.
disadur dari http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/a-fake-vs-a-real-tree/?src=twt&twt=nytimesscience
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The (real) 74-foot Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York. But in others, the answer is not so clear. When it comes to Christmas trees, for instance, which is better for the planet: the long-lasting artificial kind, or the freshly cut, pine-scent-and-sap variety?
As I report in Saturday’s Times, at least one major study found that the real tree is probably the better choice. But as I found during my reporting, many consumers still believe that a faux fir is less harmful to the environment than the real thing.
That’s because an artificial tree can be used again and again, unlike a real tree, which is tossed out at the end of the season. Yet as it turns out, that’s not enough to tilt the scales in the faux fir’s favor. The resources used to make artificial trees — plastic and metal — have a high extraction cost, and most trees are made in China, meaning they need to be shipped thousands of miles before they reach American shores.
Real trees are also biodegradable and can be composted or turned into mulch; fake trees are almost all fated to end up in a landfill one day.
Artificial Christmas trees continue to sell by the truckload, of course — according to industry estimates, sales in the United States may hit 13 million this year.
Most faux trees have a lifespan of about six to 10 years, surveys have found, at which point they start to look a bit ragged and consumers chuck them out. At this point, they’re off to the landfill.
What about recycling? I posed this question to Jami Warner, executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association, which represents makers of artificial trees.
“All the materials in an artificial Christmas tree are recyclable and trees are recycled now,” Ms. Warner wrote in an e-mail.
Technically, this might be true. But all the municipal recycling programs I queried said they did not recycle artificial trees — and for good reason: artificial trees are largely made from polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which is in most cases prohibitively expensive to recycle. I mentioned this fact to Ms. Warner, who said the onus rested with the cities, not her industry.
“Ultimately trees are likely to end up in landfills until cities offer recycling programs,” Ms. Warner wrote.
disadur dari http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/a-fake-vs-a-real-tree/?src=twt&twt=nytimesscience