If you’ve been one of the many who has chosen to go with the plastic Christmas tree option, because you think it’s better for the environment, here’s some food for thought. Plastic trees might not be all that after all – the reality is that most plastic trees end up on landfill sites, where they take hundreds of years to degrade as pointed out by ethical living journalist Lucy Siegle.

According to Siegle, one acre of Christmas trees produces enough oxygen for 16 people to live on for a year before they are cut. You just need to get the right type of tree. So here’s what to do:

1) Make sure your tree is as locally grown as possible. There are 400 UK registered with the British Christmas Tree Growers Association
2) www.xmastreesales.co.uk in Shropshire avoids unnecessary harvesting of trees on a sustainable plantation.
3) And go for the best-looking trees, as tall healthy looking trees tend to have been grown in good conditions – on good soil with lots of space between them.
4) Buying a tree with roots means you can replant it in the garden. To do this successfully you need to find a tree with a good root ball. Plant the tree with lots of space around it and make sure you continue to water it (many trees die in summer as people forget to do so).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 10:42 am and is filed under Eco-shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.