Christmas is over and the Christmas trees that were in the house are being cleaned up. The approximately 2,5 million Christmas trees that are now handed in to waste processors will be given an environmentally responsible new destination. A sustainable solution for your tree.
They use the needles for compost, the wood goes to the bio-energy plant as biomass. It is approximately fifty-fifty: half of the tree is reused, the other half is burned for energy.
Although the trees are usually left bare on the street, they may still contain decorations. That is why waste processors are the first to remove impurities such as plastic from the tree. At a later stage, the metals are removed with a large magnet, such as Christmas ball hangers.
The tree is further processed or shredded. The woody material is then used as biomass to generate energy. The foliage and leaves become compost that is later used as a soil improver for arable farming and agriculture.
Real Christmas tree more sustainable
The Nordmann spruce trees are grown in Denmark without artificial fertilizers or pesticides. Within ten to twelve years they are about two meters high. Like all trees, the fir trees in the fields convert the harmful greenhouse gas CO2 into oxygen.
According to an Australian study, a real tree produces approximately 3 kilos of CO2 emissions during the process of growing, transporting and burning. The production of a plastic tree produces almost 48 kilos of CO2. This means that an artificial tree is only more sustainable than a real Christmas tree after 16 years.
