Real or Fake Christmas Tree

Every year 80% of Americans put up a Christmas tree and, roughly, 80% of those trees are fake. If you buy a fake tree, you now have a mass of plastic, but it can be used year after year. Choosing a real tree entails cutting down millions of trees every year for use of decoration. Which brings about the question, which type of Christmas tree is better for the environment?

Fake Christmas trees can be reused year after year, but according to USA Today, Americans still purchase 10 million fake trees each Christmas season. These trees are made from plastic and metal that are not biodegradable. Most of these fake trees are shipped from China, meaning that acquiring them comes with a bigger carbon footprint. Considering the tree is expected to break down within ten years, these fake trees will eventually end up in landfills and be replaced.

About 30 million real trees are sold each year for Christmas. These trees are grown in the United States and do not have the carbon footprint of fake trees. In order to supply 30 million trees every year, tree farms are growing between 350-500 million trees at any given time. As these trees grow, they are taking carbon in and releasing oxygen. And because these are grown on farms, forests are not being cut down to supply Christmas trees. When the holiday season is over, these trees are completely biodegradable.

When compared side by side, real trees are by far better for the environment. With fake trees being the cheaper financial option, how can we encourage families to make the switch to real one? One such option would be to put tariffs on fake trees coming from China. Increasing the price for the consumer will lower the demand. Those tariffs could also be used to fund green initiatives here in the US. 

While its fun to compare the two trees and their impact on the environment, we likely wont ever see policy to influence our Christmas tree purchases. In the grand scheme of things, Christmas trees have a miniscule impact on our environment. These trees 'account for less than 0.1% of the average person's annual carbon footprint.'

-Steven Brown

Sources: 

VERIFY: Is a real or fake Christmas tree better for the environment? | king5.com

Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees: Which Is More Eco-Friendly? (greenmatters.com)