Ho ho ho! I know I said I wasn’t going to publish again until 2023, but I realized I had neglected to drop this once-a-year trick into your inboxes: Mulch your Christmas tree. It’s important.
Trees are a well-established method of keeping planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. And though agroforestry has its downsides—like the emissions of the equipment used to do the farming—these trees sequester carbon as well. An acre of farmed Christmas trees can suck more than 500 pounds of CO2 out of the air. (Christmas tree farms have also been shown to benefit bird populations.)
Yay! Great news! Until you burn your tree, or throw it in the trash.
If you celebrate the holidays with a non-plastic tree, you can help keep that gas out of the air. When that Christmas timber ends up in a landfill, it will decompose and release methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times as potent as CO2; if you burn your friendly frond, most of its carbon sequestration benefits will literally go up in smoke.
But if you run your tree through a wood chipper and use it in your garden, you can keep that carbon locked into the plant matter. Mulching your cheer can inject that carbon right back into the soil.
In case you think I’m coming to you live from my high horse of perfection, I have to get on the mulching train, too:
Last year’s tree is still in the wood pile, but I’m gonna mulch it along with this year’s. Maybe you don’t have access to a wood chipper. I don’t either. Fortunately, we can rent them. I’m trying to avoid the big home stores until they overhaul their wood-sourcing policies, but if that’s your only option, I say go for it. I’ll probably hit up the farm store in the next town over, which is locally owned and important to our agricultural community.
Cityfolk can have an even easier time. Curbside trash collectors often grind up trees by default. New York makes a two-week party out of the recycling: Mulchfest takes place in dozens of parks around the city; last year, more than 50,000 trees skipped the landfill and instead transformed into mulch that the Parks Department can use in its landscaping.
Chicago has a similar deal, as does Tuscon. LA doesn’t make it as much of a party, but you can get your tree picked up and recycled anywhere in the county. Same situation in Houston, San Francisco, and Duluth. I am literally just Googling “[CITY NAME] Christmas tree mulching” and you can, too.
If your town doesn’t have a program, and you can’t rent a chipper, try calling a landscaping company. Chances are, if you bring them the tree, they’ll be happy to add it to their mulch pile. I just texted a friend in the business, and he confirms: “My boss says yeah.” There you have it.
Whether your holiday celebration involves a tree, menorah, kinara, pentagram, or whatever, I hope you’re having a great one. Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.
Take care of yourselves—and the rest of us, too.
Joe
joe@one5c.com