Thanksgiving is over. I am 5 pounds fatter, and there is one less turkey roaming the earth. This is all good news because it is officially time for me to listen to Christmas music and decorate.
Over this last weekend we decorated our condo and put up our Christmas tree. Last year we decided to do something I never thought we would do, we purchased a fake Christmas tree. This was very difficult considering I used to work on a tree farm and it was my job to trim the damn things.
The reason we felt we should move to a fake tree was to avoid burning down the house. We have 2 cats and did not want to risk them jumping from the couch and attacking the tree causing it to fall over and some how ignite. I also like to have a tree up for long periods of time so a fake tree lets us do that without worrying about it drying up.
Now that I am another year older and wiser I find that there is other benefits to having a Christmas tree that is fake. First of all there is the environmental factors. Our tree was made from recycled plastics, what a great way to use old plastic. The other thing is, there is one less tree that will be cut down. Actually if we are careful this tree should last us many years and still look good, so that is many trees that will not be cut down.
In 2002 20,808,065 Christmas trees were harvested in the USA. I am sure it is even more nowadays. That is a lot of O2 we are taking out of the environment.
So I propose that we all get fake Christmas trees made from Recycled plastic to help our planet.
I will post some pics of my tree after I take them. My village also. :)
Monday, December 1, 2008
Christmas Trees
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2 comments:
I have to find the article I just read but it still said it is environmentally better to get a real tree.
ooh...i found it:
"If you want a tree for the holiday, the experts at Grist and TreeHugger say it's actually better to buy a cut real Christmas tree than an artificial tree.
Why? In a word, plastics. Fake trees are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Producing this type of plastic creates a lot of pollution, and PVC is difficult to recycle.
Plus, lead is commonly found in PVC. According to a report in the Journal of Environmental Health, lead levels are about a third higher in older artificial trees (ranging in age from from 7 to 17 years). Tests revealed lead levels that are significantly higher than the safe daily exposure level for children."
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/greenpicks/46/oh-christmas-tree-oh-green-christmas-tree.html
We're going to get a live one that you have in a pot and then we will plant it in the spring.
Shit. Well I guess I should research this some. What about new trees. and it said recycled plastics. I wonder what they mean... Probably like the base or something. I Like the idea of a tree you can plant. Good thinking on that one.
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