Canadian firms tout ‘green’ christmas trees

OTTAWA - Going “green” has never been so festive as in westernmost Canada where two start-ups are offering an eco-friendly Christmas tree rental service for the holiday period.

For about 100 dollars, Evergrow Christmas Trees and Carbonsync Christmas will drop off a potted tree at your home or business and pick it up three weeks later after all the presents have been opened and Santa has parked his sleigh.

Carbonsync plans to donate its trees to habitat restoration groups for replanting after Christmas, while Evergrow says it will return them to a nursery to be cared for until next Christmas when they may be rented out again.

Trees normally cost four times less on average, but are usually turned into mulch or sent to garbage dumps after the holidays in most North American cities.

“What (folks) are doing now is they're growing these hordes of trees everywhere in the Fraser Valley to ship to Vancouver,” Brad Major of Carbonsync Christmas told public broadcaster CBC.

“These trees grow anywhere from six to 12 years to be used for one Christmas, and all these trees go to the landfill, and it’s this huge pile of trees,” he said. “It’s like the biggest waste of a resource.”

The Canadian firms’ trees will also continue to draw CO2 from the atmosphere, doing their bit to help curb global warming instead of ending up as waste.

And if a family wishes, they may even rent the same tree year after year from Evergrow, as long as it has not grown too large to fit in their living room.

- Sapa-AFP