Real or plastic, a Christmas tree dilemma

If you haven’t already put up your Christmas tree chances are you will be in the next week or so…so what will it be this year a real tree or a fake plastic tree? Well to me this is an obvious choice, the real tree of course. I know some of you are asking why any normal person would think it’s okay to cut down a helpless tree, just to throw on a few decorations on it… Well the answer is simple, you can recycle a real tree and unfortunately you can not recycle your plastic tree.

Getting your tree from a tree farm has many benefits, most of the year 1 acre of trees can produce enough oxygen for 18 homes, that’s only 1 acre imagine the farms that have hundreds of acres. Most tree farms plant just as much if not more trees then are actually being cut down. The trees can be recycled when we are done with them, they can be turned into mulch, chopped for heat or left in a compost to go back into the earth from which it grew from.

My family and I always reuse our tree, the branches are added to my compost and the trunk is dried for burning in the woodstove. If you live in a busy city their will be a tree pick up after the new year, make sure you put your tree out so it can get taken to get mulched and composted as well. If you do have a plastic tree and are thinking of changing please don’t throw out your plastic into the garbage you can donate it to families who can’t afford any type of tree, or call your local waste management and ask if they have places to take your old plastic tree so it won’t end up in the landfill.

Holiday Green Tips

There are other ways of conserving this Christmas, consider changing your lights to LED’s, buy or make fresh wreaths, use cloth or news papers to wrap presents, or have you children make paper. Try to get gifts made from recycled products or make your own gifts. There are plenty of ways to be a little greener this Christmas…Just remember to stay safe, have fun and please recycle, reduce and reuse this holiday season.