by L.S. Watts

Created on: December 14, 2010   Last Updated: December 15, 2010

At one point it was said that artificial Christmas trees were better on the environment, because it prevented trees from being cut down, but is it truly better for the environment to buy artificial trees? Experts say no.

Let’s first look at artificial Christmas trees. The average home only keeps an artificial Christmas tree for around six to nine years before heading out to buy a new one. This sounds good in theory but the effect of discarding an artificial Christmas tree versus a live Christmas tree can be disastrous on the environment.

It is estimated that around 85 percent of artificial Christmas trees are imported from China. This alone can cause trouble, not only for the environment, but on the health of your family. Most artificial Christmas trees contain lead which could possibly lead to lead poisoning. All artificial Christmas trees contain polyvinyl chloride, more commonly referred to as PVC. PVC is dangerous because of its production of dioxins. Dioxin is a chemical that is consider quite dangerous to humans. According to the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition, dioxins are responsible for certain types of cancer, delayed development in children, and it even weakens the immune system.

An artificial Christmas tree is primarily petroleum based plastic and metal.  Neither of these is biodegradable. After a family discards their artificial Christmas tree it goes to the landfill where it will stay for hundreds of years. Imaging how many people use artificial Christmas trees and how often they discard the old one to buy a new one.

Aside from the makeup of an artificial Christmas tree being damaging to the environment, so is the factories in which they are produced. These factories will consume non-renewable resources in the production of artificial Christmas trees. Then think about how much fuel is burned to ship and deliver these Christmas trees to stores across the United States. This takes a toll on the environment.

Now let’s compare this information to live Christmas trees and the effect it has on the environment. First off all trees used in the United States are grown on tree farms in the United States or Canada. This eliminates the deforestation argument because these trees are planted and grown for the specific intent of using them for Christmas trees. For every Christmas tree that is cut down for Christmas, tree farms and companies plant three or more trees to replace the one they cut down. Trees absorb carbon dioxide

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