New
York Times: Which is better for the environment? A real
pine tree or an artificial one? John Collins Rudolf takes up
the question in his
New York Times article. “The natural tree is a
better option,” answers Jean-Sébastien Trudel,
founder of Ellipsos, a Montreal environmental consulting firm
that released an
independent
study in 2009. The firm found that an artificial tree would
have to be reused for more than 20 years to be greener than
buying a fresh-cut tree annually, because of such factors as
the carcinogens produced during manufacture, the nonrecyclable
plastic and metal used in their construction, and the shipping
from Asia where most of them are made. Living trees, in
contrast, contribute oxygen to the atmosphere while growing and
can be composted or mulched after use.
