Should YOU buy a fake Christmas tree or a real one? The answer is here

SEASON 2 – EPISODE 8 – Should YOU buy a fake Christmas tree or a real one? The answer is here

This video provides the definitive answer to that question that plagues us every year on whether it is better to buy a real Christmas tree, a fake Christmas tree or even to rent a live Christmas tree with roots. I look at the environmental impact of each of these options, and the results may surprise you.

Between the roots and tree itself your average 6 foot Christmas tree has absorbed about 20 kilos of carbon in it’s lifetime. If you dispose of this Christmas Tree by putting into landfill the carbon emissions will be 16 kilos. So the planet wins by 4 kgs

Almost every Christmas tree is now wrapped in plastic netting weighing roughly 25 grams which is roughly 0.2 kilograms of carbon emissions added to the atmosphere. This should in most cases go into your trash rather than recycling, but you should check with your recycling centre.

There is a lot of debate about how long someone will use a fake Xmas tree, people wanting to prove they are bad go for 5, people wanting to prove they are good go for 15, so I am going for simple math and also splitting this down the middle so, by buying a real 6 foot Christmas tree, roots removed, locally sourced for ten years Carbon absorbed 200 KGS Carbon emitted 162 KGS.

Well done you are saving the planet, unless it has travelled 600 miles or you have driven too far to get it.If your tree is burnt, or mulched, or composted your carbon emissions in which case you are possibly carbon neutral or worse.

But there is another thing you can do, however mad this sounds. If you mulch, compost or even burn your Christmas tree the carbon emissions are reduced to less than 4 Kgs of carbon emissions.

So using one of these methods, your carbon footprint over ten years is minus 158 Kgs Top tip, check with you local authority, what they do with your Christmas trees A natural two-metre Christmas tree that does not have roots and is disposed of into a landfill after Christmas produces a carbon footprint of around 16kg of CO2. A two-metre tree that has roots and is properly disposed of after its use — by burning it on a bonfire, planting it or having it chipped — has a carbon footprint of around 3.5kg of CO2, four and a half times less.

A two-metre Christmas tree made from plastic has a carbon footprint measuring at around 40kg of CO2, more than 10 times greater than a properly disposed of real tree.