No, thank goodness I wasn't there at the sale. I bought my
artificial tree earlier that week. But I've been having environmental
guilt.
Artificial Tree?
Is the tree in my living room the best I could have done for
the environment? I use reusable bottles, reusable coffee mugs, reusable plates,
forks and knives. Is a reusable tree the same?
A Google search shows why my environmental Spider Sense is
tingling. Many people don’t think artificial trees are helpful to the earth.
Made in China. Shipped stateside. Contains dubious chemicals. Never degrade in
landfills. The list goes on.
Live Tree?
So a live tree? Purchased at the same home center? Those
trees get trucked in. Then a fire hazard. Then you hope your town will mulch them and not
dump them in a landfill. On the upside, less pesticides than I expected. But it helps if you know your grower, which leads me to...
Cut it Yourself?
Home centers aren’t the only places for live trees. You can
cut one down like my uncle’s family. They get an ultra-fresh tree with less fire
hazard. Personally, I worry about squirrels coming home with
you. But they haven’t had issues and have decades of holiday chopping under
their belts.
Lastly, the Internet greenies point to bulb trees. These are
live trees that the nursery digs up, wrapping their roots in burlap. Then you
bring the whole thing home. But there is a lot to think about when you buy a
tree and make it a houseplant for a week. How to keep the roots wet? How to
plant it in the frozen soil outside on December 26? How long can it stay inside
the house (wow, you really should read this article: http://cin.ci/TxwpIV)? Also note that balled
trees are really heavy. Like a 6” tree can be 200lbs. Check it out: http://bit.ly/QCenbg
So my environmental guilt is well founded. But my cats can
climb this tree as well as any other one, so at least they are happy. If you
are in a Tree Quandary of your own, check out these articles for a
little research:
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