The Justification for Cutting Down Over 30 Million Christmas Trees Annually for the Winter Holidays

By: Celina Yang

If you think about what events are in December, most people will probably say Christmas or the Winter Holidays, even though I usually think about the finals first. With the idea of this holiday, there is a greatly common practice of having a Christmas tree in the household during this exciting season. And with this common practice comes the purchase and deposition (except for artificial trees) of millions of Christmas trees, mostly spruce, pine, or fir. There are many benefits known about having a real Christmas tree, but few harms. In this piece, I will elaborate on the real impact of Christmas tree farming on the economy as well as the environment.

Some of the benefits of real Christmas trees include the ability of being recyclable. Unlike artificial trees, real trees are very friendly to the environment. They take up lands that are not sufficiently nutrient rich for other crops. Many other facts have come up about the environmental benefits of growing trees including giving up oxygen. “Christmas trees are 100 percent recyclable and biodegradable. Most people know this, she said, but what some people don’t know is how much oxygen an acre of Christmas trees can provide for them. “Each acre provides enough oxygen to support 18 people."(Thompson).They also absorb carbon dioxide from the air and truly helps the atmosphere as well the ozone layer, “Just one Christmas tree can absorb 1 ton of CO2 during its lifetime and with over 350 million trees growing at any one time, you can imagine the benefits,”(treetowne). Other facts include the harms of fake trees which promotes the buying of real trees. As most fake trees are made from PVC or just plastic, “And problematic, because roughly 80% of PVC manufactured in China is made not from oil or gas, as in most countries, but from coal, using an obsolete process that requires vast quantities of catalytic mercury. According to a 2015 EU-funded study, the amount of mercury released annually into the Chinese environment from PVC manufacturing is unknown, but “potentially enormous,”(TheGuardian). PVC is not only harmful to the environment but also to human health, such as “High concentrations have long been known to cause devastating and permanent neurological damage to humans.”

One not widely known fact is that trees are not always that good to the environment if not recycled properly, which many trees are not. “While that may not sound eco-friendly, the A.C.T.A., which represents manufacturers, claims the environmental impact is lower than that of a real tree if you use the artificial tree for five or more years. The group argues that getting a new, real tree each year — and possibly disposing of it in a landfill at the end of the season — has a bigger impact on greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy use, and other areas than a reused artificial tree does,”(Zraick). There are also the smaller harms including pests in the trees as well as sticky and messy sap and branches. Plue the burdensome storage required for long range transportation. Another is that many farmers spray pesticides on the trees for better physical state which can be very damaging to the soil as well as the wildlife nearby.

A common benefit for Christmas trees in general, fake or real, is the economic side. The Christmas tree industry is quite big and provides many jobs. “According to the National Christmas Tree Association, Christmas trees support the economy by helping employ 100,000 people.” “Indeed, each year Americans will buy between 25 million and 30 million real Christmas trees along with another 10 million to 20 million artificial ones, according to Statista. The $2 billion industry, though, can tell an economic story by how extravagant people are willing to get” (CNBC).

Overall, the general commonality of christmas trees during the holiday season and the mass purchasing has clearly increased the scale and the significance of the type of trees and their impact. The ongoing debate will probably end in an appropriate solution and if recycled correctly real trees are very worth their cultural significance.