I find this VERY difficult to believe and question the data.

Why do they assume most artificial trees end up in the dump? I donated one to charity, and it's total life will probably be more than 20 years.

I believe it.
My family always got their real tree from a farm in North Carolina (we were in SC) and after the holidays, our town (an island actually) would pick up all the trees and either turn them into mulch to use in all the town's green spaces or line the beach to help build up the dunes.
Most people I know that have artificial trees end up tossing it after a few years when "prettier" models are rolled out. Not sure what happens to them when they are donated to charity either.
I just prefer real trees anyways...something soul-crushing (to me) about a fake tree. I'm the same with real versus fake fireplaces too!

We had a tree for 20 years. It can be done if it is a good tree that is cared for. ALSO. . . what about deforestation and the carbon dioxide left in the air by the absence of the trees. I question whether it is a zero sum gain but I DOUBT that cutting down trees is ever "green"

I'm going to save so much moolah every year by keeping my fake tree.

ec05:

Here's the argument from the MSNBC article, which I think is sound:

"Live trees actively photosynthesize as they grow from saplings, which removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. After they have been cut and Christmas is over, they're usually chipped for mulch. As mulch, the bits of tree very slowly decompose, releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. So in the end, a real Christmas tree is carbon neutral, putting the same amount of carbon dioxide back into the air as it took out (albeit much more slowly).

The tree farms that grew the trees also replant after the trees are cut.

Artificial trees, on the other hand, don't come out even in the carbon balance. Petroleum is used to make the plastics in the trees and lots of carbon dioxide-creating energy is required to make and transport them. [Plus artificial trees often come from China, requiring energy to transport.]

Because these trees just end up in landfills after a few years' use, "those greenhouse gases are lost forever," Springer said. "There's really no opportunity to recycle those."

If the person you donated your tree to doesn't throw it away, and its total life is more than 20 years, then it sounds like your artificial tree wins. If the person you donated the tree to throws it in the dump after a year, then the real evergreen wins.

My husband and I have a fake tree and its original box (though we might have to get rid of the box because duct tape doesn't seem to be holding it together anymore).

My grandmother had it in her house when my mom was growing up. She gave it to my mom and got a new fake for herself.

My family put up the fake every year when I was growing up. We spent the Saturday after Thanksgiving assembling it (it's one of those trees that is made of a thick wooden dowel with holes drilled in, and you insert the wire-hanger-looking branches into the holes) and decorating it.

When my mother decided to get rid of the fake after years of my father begging for a real tree, I took the fake.

For the past 5 years, The Husband and I have assembled it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He leaves the room while I string the lights (I'm very picky about how they're strung, and I have rage issues when I string them). Then we watch "A Christmas Story" while we decorate it. We turn on the lights every night. And we get to enjoy our tree throughout the whole month of December without having to clean up needles and worry about fires.

I'd say, since the tree has gone through three generations and is probably at least from the 60s, it's an heirloom now.

What's soul-crushing about that?

OK...let's make it 2.5 generations.

JCNY:

If you go to a tree farm, it's farming the tree like any other crop and not deforesting what's already there. They replant after each season. And if it wasn't trees, it would be corn.

The above quote from the MSNBC article explains why a real tree is essentially carbon neutral.

Here's a helpful chart that breaks the debate down: http://www.christmastree.org/debate.cfm

JCNY:
Most Christmas trees are grown on farms right? So, they wouldn't cause de-foresting.

I think it's a stretch to say that all real trees get recycled into mulch and all fake trees get thrown out before their life cycle in complete.

I can see where most trees are grown close to where they are sold, but most of them are transported via truck I would think (maybe some rail) and most fakes are shipped by boat which is more efficient.

I just have some issues with the assumptions.

i work for a tree organization and most people would think we are anti real tree.

nothing could be further from the truth!

locally grown evergreens are absolutely earth friendly. each evergreen harvested like a crop has trees planted to replace it. each evergreen used as a tree in a home can be mulched and recycled, usually by the municipality you live in. each tree farm preserves acres and acres of valuable open space that would otherwise be threatened by development.

artificial trees are often made in china, and from petro chemicals. these trees cannot be recycled once they get boring or go out of style. they never benefited people near them by providing clean oxygen or by taking up storm water or preserving open space, but often did the opposite. they do nothing for your local economy.

so, as a person who works in a professional capacity to save trees and plant them, i encourage you to get a real tree that was locally grown. you will enjoy it, and the people you bought it from will continue to plant more trees for each year---allowing your community to benefit from everything that acres and acres of trees provide for us.

that said, if your artificial tree is an heirloom, awesome! i hope it continues to be for years to come.

Yeah, I really think we need to back off the fake tree users. I'm a bit suspicious of the term "most people," as in "most people recycle their real tree," and "most people toss their fake tree after a few years."

First, I lived in suburbia almost my entire life, and "most people" around there trashed their real trees. If your town/county doesn't provide a tree pick-up service, there is a very slim chance that Joe Average is going to go out of his way to find a recycling center. And even if he does, he is probably hauling the tree many miles away, by himself, in an SUV. Environmentally friendly? I think not.

Secondly, who can afford to buy a new fake tree every year?? They're usually at least twice as expensive as a real tree (when not on sale), and honestly, the newer models aren't that much greater than the old ones.

We've had our fake tree in my family for nearly 23 years. So yes, we've achieved carbon neutral status (yay!). But we got a fake in the first place due to severe conifer allergies in the family.

So ease up on the fakies. If they're not "doing their part" for the environment here, I'm sure they're picking up slack elsewhere!

We are lucky enough to live in Oregon, where my family has a tree farm on the side. We sell U-Cut trees that take about as much carbon to harvest as a trip to the mall for Christmas presents. Trees are cut by hand, fieldwork is done by hand, are pesticide free, and are replanted every year. In the meantime, our thousands of trees are taking carbon out of the air, providing habitat for wildlife (many deer, rabbits, birds, etc) and improving the water table. Perhaps the debate needs to turn to buying local responsibly produced trees versus trees shipped by carton. Our local municipalities and boy scouts provide many easy for recycling and if a tree was trashed, at least it would have the opportunity to decompose versus sit as plastic in a landfill for eons potentially leaching the plastics and lead into our water supply. Until a recyclable variety of fake trees are produced, I firmly believe naturally grown trees are the more environmental approach.

"3 kilograms of carbon dioxide is produced in the growing, transportation and disposal of a real tree compared with the 48 kilograms produced in the manufacture of the average artificial tree," the article states.

So 3 kg per tree per year for 20 years is 60 kg.

versus 48 kg per artificial tree if kept for 20 years.

so the artificial tree need only stick around for 16 years to equal 16 year of real trees.

What about keeping a real tree in a large pot on the patio or deck? No cutting or transporting required. My grandmother had one not potted but in her front garden that she covered in Christmas lights each Christmas season, the rest of the year it was just a tree. I know some people live in apartments etc, but then you could get a small potted one.

What about those places where you can 'rent' a real, potted christmas tree for the season, decorate and take care of it, then return it. I don't know if they then get saved for next season or re-planted. Sounds like a neat idea to me.

Hmmm carbon output isn't the only way to measure environmental friendliness...

When I was a kid I talked my mom into get a fake tree. It made me sad that all those trees got cut down every year to be propped up for month and then thrown out.

I never even considered the carbon issue.

I've had my own fake tree for three years now and hope that I'll never have to get another one.

Oh gee, we bought a fake last year after years of spending about $100 on a real tree, we thought we were being so green (last year it was considered green to buy a fake). So I am hoping the tree will last 20 more years (I'm 52, I'll take it to the nursing home with me, I promise) so I can stop feeling guilty. Of course, it will be fashionable, I mean green, to have a fake next year, so what the heck.

Even if you keep a fake tree for a long time, it's still made with petroleum products, won't deteriorate naturally, and will be thrown away some day. Being 'carbon neutral' isn't the entire issue.

most artificial trees last far longer than twenty years. Our department secretary has had hers for twenty now and was thinking of giving it to the church and buying a new one, but chose, instead, just to continue using the old one.

We have an artificial one for allergy and cleaning reasons. I sneeze like mad for the first week a real tree is in the house, and then vaccuum every day for the next three weeks (which, by the way, also leaves a carbon footprint).

it too breaks my heart to cut down a perfectly healthy tree just to have it die on a tree stand in my living room. the sound of it sucking up water hits me way too hard to every do that again. what's the ethical Christmas tree "kind design"? i say faux trees all the way.

I agree that the article hasn't addressed every possible issue involved in the fake vs. real debate, but that doesn't mean that the article is worthless! At the very least, it has more validity than the antecdotal evidence and emotionally-based opinions being expressed here!

i bought a vintage aluminum tree from ebay. it's at least 50 years old and the ornaments that came with it as well.

i think my tree, if it ever has to be thrown out, can be recycled and i think the carbon footprint of a used vintage tree is negligible.

Here in Australia there's the added consideration that pine trees are not naitive, they are invasive, and can easily create a monoculture with their poisinous needles carpetting the ground and killing of native plants. When I lived with my parents on a bush property, we'd go get one every year and feel GOOD about it because we were basically removing a weed. I'm not sure how to weigh up christmas tree farms, but at least they're growing something.

I don't think most people DO have good quality fake trees these days. If you are willing to shell out the cash, good for you, but I know one friend who has had a new artificial tree almost every year for the last decade, because he insists on buying the cheap ones that fall apart.

I have to admit that my fake tree was picked out because it saves me money, rather than with "green" considerations in mind. Four years ago, they were asking $75 for the size frazier fir that I wanted. I decided that was ridiculous, so using a coupon, I was able to get the same size fake tree for $50. I've used it every year since. I figure, it's saved me $250 already, assuming the price of trees hasn't gone up, which it probably has. Not to mention that it packs up into it's storage tub every year and I don't have to figure out how I'm going to get rid of the tree carcass. I live in a condo and I can't do any of those green things like composting/mulching the tree. Nor does my building's trash service pick up dead trees for mulching.

Also, I've heard they're safer, as far as fire hazards go.

How many real trees catch fire and burn houses down?

How much CO2 does that release into the air (a house burning down)?

How much CO2 is released when the fire trucks race to your engulfed home?

This seems like a flaw in the study.

Give the REAL TREE people a break instead of trying to defend your FAKE tree tendencies. Besides, fake trees are hideous.

My tree is from the 50's and it doesn't seem to be 'long dated' yet!! Thank god! Two decades is just pocket change to our tree. I'd say it's pretty 'green' (although really it's silver).

I don't care how "green" a real one is if it makes me sneeze and break out in itchy misery the moment it comes in the house. I've had my fake for over a decade and it has decades more in it. If I didn't have kids, I wouldn't even have a tree.

I've been getting real trees, mostly because we have nowhere to put fake trees, but my parents have had the same fake tree since about 1980 and it's going strong, so it's definitely possible.

If you really want to be green, buy a live tree and plant it in the spring.

I think hipsters like fake trees because of the whole retro cool factor. I think they're hideous, but whatever.

I'm struggling to comprehend why anyone cares. Fake tree or real tree or no tree - someone will always disagree with your choice.
How about instead of worrying what tree choice is more "carbon neutral", we stop spending thousands of dollars on cheaply made crap shipped over from China just so we can wrap it in paper and shove it under said tree?
Bah humbug. :)

Real trees were nonexistant when I was growing up in South America, and the fake trees available were expensive and tiny. Another family had brought an artificial tree over from the States and used it for probably about 10 years. When they went back to the U.S., they passed it on to us. That was 1986. We used it every year until my family came back to the States in 99. At which time we passed it on to someone else. I wouldn't be surprised if its up in someone's living room right this moment. How's that for green :)