Artificial or real tree?

[Dunamite]

Which kind of tree do you have or plan to get and why the choice?

I have an artificial tree, but love real trees. As a kid, we always had a real tree. But when we had children of our own we got an artificial tree due to safety concerns and it was more economical. It really is a very nice tree in a plastic sort of way. It is the ornaments and the memories associated with each that make the tree ours.

As a concerned environmentalist I will stick with this tree until I can get rid of it in good conscience. I am not even sure which kind of tree is more environmentally best. Artificial trees are plastic and metal which harm the environment in their production and eventual disposal. But in between these two times they do not seem to cause too many environmental problems. Real trees have some benefits, but some problems of their own. They produce oxygen as they grow, which is good for all of us, but cultured trees are use pesticides which are bad for the environment and when they go to land fill they give off green house gases.

So what is best: real or artificial?

Blessings,
Dunamite

 

[handy]

We had an aluminium tree when I was a little girl. It was silver, and we decorated it with blue glass bulbs. Mom had this light with a rotating plastic circle quartered into red, blue, green and yellow, and the colored light would reflect off the aluminium and glass. I thought it was beautiful. To this day I remember being wrapped up with my blankie and stuffed green dog, falling asleep watching the tree change color.

Steve and I bought an artificial tree when we first got married, but then we also have three cats who used the thing as their holiday cat toy. I still haven't gotten rid of it, I'll have to check into seeing how it can be recycled or something. There is a recycling place down in Boise that might be able to do something with it, but until then, it lives in the box in the attic as it has done for a long time now.

I think all in all, the Christmas tree farms are best. A lot of folks around here get their tree out of the forests, but I'd rather not chop anything down in the wild. Leave them for the critters. Those with private timber also chop theirs, but then they also tend to replant.

While there are pros and cons to the Christmas tree farm trees, I think the pros out-weigh the cons. And, I wouldn't throw it into a land fill when done. Many places will chip them and the chips can then be used in a variety of ways. Since we heat our home entirely by wood fire, any real trees we get just get chopped up and burned. Some environmentalists will squawk at that, but I'd bet our carbon foot-print against theirs any day of the week.

All in all, if you look at all that goes into the making of an artifical tree, from an environmental POV, real one's really are better.

Except they don't look as psychedelic when you reflect colored lights on them! :Fade-color