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Some green campaigners have called on the UK to forgo a Christmas tree this year. They have warned that cutting down real trees or creating plastic ones are both bad for the planet as most trees normally end up in a landfill. Peach Rose, an environmental activist, and freelance journalist Afua Adom debated whether banning Christmas trees went too far on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Ms Rose said: “I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying we should ban them.
“But I really want people to consider the sustainability options for Christmas this year.
“In my family, we just go outside on Christmas Eve, we decorate the trees outside our home, we take some mulled wine, we talk to the neighbours. For me, that’s all the joy that we could have for Christmas.
“But we don’t have to do something where both the options for real and plastic trees are increasingly unsustainable.”
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Ms Adom shot back: “I agree about the sustainability of everlasting or plastic trees or real trees. They can leave quite a significant carbon footprint.
“But, first of all, not everybody has a garden where they can go out and start hanging baubles on trees. Not everybody has the luxury of outside space.
“I don’t know about you, but putting up my tree was such a little bit of joy that myself and my daughter and my family needed in this very difficult year.
“I think when we’re talking about sustainability and Christmas trees, it’s a once-a-year event. It’s not something people are doing every month or every week.”
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She continued: “There are better ways to work towards sustainability and sustainable development goals.
“If we talk about using fewer carbon emissions in our homes, less electricity, installing smart metres, switching to electric cars.
“Those are much more effective ways of reaching sustainable development goals rather than focusing on Christmas trees.”
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Ms Rose admitted that most of the responsibility should lie with the Government who, she claimed, are “cutting down trees left, right and centre” for infrastructure projects.
However, she added that it was “a bit much” to cut down a whole tree for only a small period of the year.
One Christmas tree takes eight to 10 years to grow to optimum height.
Approximately 10 million trees are sold each year in the UK.
Around three million are imported each Christmas to the country.
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