For the 22nd year, the York County Solid Waste Authority is running a free Christmas tree recycling program for county residents Dec. 27 through Jan. 31.
Trees may be dropped off at the authority’s Yard Waste Transfer Facility during daylight hours any day of the week.
You should remove ornaments, tinsel, lights and protective bags from trees. Also, check whether your municipality offers curbside tree collection. (The county will also accept loads of trees for recycling that are collected by municipal programs.)
Read at the jump about the Nature Conservancy’s take on whether a fake or real tree is “greener.”
The Nature Conservancy says fake trees are bad for the environment in part because they have a larger carbon footprint than real Christmas trees:
– They’re usually made from a plastic called polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is derived from petroleum and manufactured using processes that have been criticized for air and water pollution and energy use.
– About 85 percent of fake trees sold in the U.S. are shipped from China, where most electricity comes from burning coal — the “dirtiest” source of electricity. The shipping process usually involves a diesel-powered ship.
Most real trees, on the other hand, grow for several years on one of the 12,000 tree farms in the U.S. before they’re cut, absorbing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. According to a recent NYT article:
In the most definitive study of the perennial real vs. fake question, an environmental consulting firm in Montreal 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. The calculations included greenhouse gas emissions, use of resources and human health impacts.
