There has been an ongoing debate over the environmental impact of artificial Christmas trees during the holiday season for some time now. Although they can be reused over and over and require very low maintenance, they are still made out of plastic and fill up landfills when discarded.
George Grant of Stockeld Park has had a revolutionary idea however, an idea that has had everyone scratching their heads and saying “why didn’t we think of this before?”
Organic trees
Yes, you read that right, Grant owns a Christmas tree farm in Wetherby that aims to grow renewable and sustainable trees for sale to people around Yorkshire and he is adamant that this is the way forward, and for good reason.
“Well, we are a plastic tree free zone at Stockeld”, said Grant when asked why people should go organic, “We’re meant to be moving away from plastic, onto fully renewable and regenerative things and Christmas trees are exactly that”
“We’re cutting down 30-35,000 trees a year, but we’re planting around 60,000” He explained. “No matter how many we grow, not every one is going to be good enough to sell and these trees sit here generating oxygen”
“We suspect that these trees are absorbing around 600 tonnes of co2 annually and they’re generating enough oxygen to sustain around 4000 people, you can’t say that about the plastic trees you get from China”
It is easy for us to go for the cheaper and easier option, but it is important to be mindful of the environment and buying your tree locally this Christmas is an admirable contribution to help the planet.
