I wish they explored the ACTA claims that artificial Christmas trees are more environmentally friendly than real trees.
Artificial trees are made from PVC and the by products of PVC manufacturing are highly toxic and historically highly polluting.
In order for that claim to be true under China's lax regulatory environment, either they have some revolutionary new method of producing PVC or farming Christmas trees is highly polluting. Either way, I would love to know the answer.
Sadly it's probably just a lie as the head of the ACTA is an artificial tree mogul.
As a heuristic, the amount you spend is approximately the damage, unless you know a lot about where the money is going. E.g. if there is a retailer involved then 50% of environmental damage is invariant.
> But trees or rotting trees can produce methane. Depends on tree variety, location, transport, and disposal.
What do location and transport have to do with the methane they produce?
If you look at the article, the map of production by states shows that trees are relatively much closer to population centers than anything coming from China. So in addition to the heavy pollution from PVC production, there's also the heavy pollution from transoceanic shipping.
Just how much methane do these rotting trees produce?
That seems an odd claim though I can't disprove it. Why would I buy an artificial tree every year and have to dispose of it every year. I mostly have a small artificial tree (along with a very old pre-decorated even smaller one) because it's a nice thing I can grab from my attic, put up in a few minutes, and stick a few decorations on it.
I did the live tree thing for a while after I bought a house and my neighbor even has a Christmas tree farm now. But, absent kids and not usually in the habit of throwing Christmas parties, I'm just not inclined to put a lot of energy into decorating for Christmas. Having to buy an artificial tree every year would sort of see to defeat the purpose of saving effort.
Every year seems excessive. I know people who've replaced artificial trees every three or so years because they don't take care of their things, but I also know people who use things until they fall apart so I could see 10 years being the average between the two kinds of people.
