Bloodeagle
12-12-2010, 05:29 PM
Have a green Christmas: Rent a tree
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/rentaltreex-wide-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/rentaltreex-large.jpg)Justin Casillas, who works for California-basedThe Living Christmas Company, hauls a tree to be delivered to a customer who will rent it for the holidays. Several West Coast companies and environmental groups now rent Christmas trees.
Jennifer Pitman is watching her toddler Beckett grow up along with their family Christmas tree.The Los Angeles mom is renting the same Charlie Brown-type potted tree she did last year and she notes the spruce — like her son — has "filled out" since last December. The company that delivered the tree Tuesday will pick it up after the holidays and store it at a nursery until next year, outfitted with a bar code to make sure it's the right one.
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/treex-inset-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/treex-large.jpg)A tag on a tree in the Living Christmas Company lot in Lomita, Calif., notes it's for rent, not sale.
Welcome to the fledgling rent-a-tree industry, which has gained ground in recent years as eco-minded consumers seek a natural tree without the possible guilt of dumping it curbside later.At least seven companies or environmental groups on the West Coast are now offering the service — another option in the evergreen debate whether natural or artificial trees are more eco-friendly (http://blog.nature.org/2010/11/christmas-tree-debate-real-or-fake/).
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/martinx-inset-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/martinx-large.jpg)Scott Martin, founder of The Living Christmas Company, talks to a customer on his mobile phone to confirm a delivery at a tree lot.
Pitman's reaction when she first heard about the Living Christmas Co. (http://livingchristmas.com/): "What a freakin' awesome idea," she says. The Los Angeles-area based firm, which did a few trial deliveries in 2008, rented 640 trees last year and expects more than a 1,000 rentals this year."It's definitely convenient," says Pitman, now nine months pregnant with her second child, of the $100 door-to-door service. "But the whole philosophy overrules everything else," she says. She grew up on Cape Cod where her family bought and disposed of a tree each year.
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/pitmanx-wide-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/pitmanx-large.jpg)Scott Martin, left, talks to Jennifer Pitman and Kevin Barry after delivering their tree in the Los Angeles area.
This disposal issue is often cited by artificial tree fans, who also note a real tree's potential fire hazard and its messy pine needles.
"It's easier to store one (artificial trees) in the attic than go out a buy a new one each year," says Allen Blakey of The Vinyl Institute, representing vinyl manufacturers. Artificial trees, many from China, are made of polyvinyl chloride or PVC plastic.
Yet plastic trees are not easily recycled whereas real trees are ground into mulch for landscaping or used to prevent beachfront erosion, says Jennifer Berry of Earth 911, a company that offers a free U.S. database of such services. She says such "treecycling" is now available to at least 70% of people (http://earth911.com/recycling/garden/christmas-trees/facts-about-treecycling/) in metro areas with 50,000 or more residents.
Also, live Christmas trees absorb carbon dioxide and more than 99% are grown on farms so there's no deforestation, says Rick Dungey of the National Christmas Tree Association. He says Harris Interactive surveys indicate U.S. consumers bought 28.2 million farm-grown Christmas trees compared with 11.7 million artificial ones in each of the last two years.
Dungey sees renting as another option for promoting "real" trees.
It's not a new idea. Companies in the United Kingdom have been renting Christmas trees for years, and in the United States, a Portland-based business began sponsoring them in 1992.
"I wanted to turn Christmas into a tree-planting holiday," says John Fogel, owner of the Original Living Christmas Tree Company (http://www.livingchristmastrees.org/faq.html). In the Portland area, he charges up to $100 to deliver and pick up a potted tree that's later planted in watersheds.
Non-profit environmental groups are also renting potted trees: They include Friends of the Urban Forest (http://www.sfenvironment.org/greenchristmas/)in San Francisco and Adopt-a-Stream Foundation (http://www.streamkeeper.org/aasf/XMAS_Trees.html)in Everett, Wash.
"We've made huge strides" in trying to make the industry more convenient, says Scott Martin, founder of Living Christmas Co.
Aside from his company, others offering door-to-door rentals have sprung up in recent years. There's the Evergrow Christmas Tree Co. in Vancouver, British Columbia and Adopt a Christmas Tree, which has singing elves for deliveries in San Diego.
"It's a labor of love," says Monica Hudson, who last year co-founded the Rent a Living Christmas Tree (http://stores.rentxmastree.com/StoreFront.bok), which serves the central California coast. She says delivering and storing Christmas trees, often for less than $100 each, is a complicated business, but she says it's an "idea whose time has come."
Pitman agrees, though she knows her tree won't win any beauty contests. It's little, about four feet without the pot, and unevenly shaped. She doesn't mind: "Nature's not intended to be perfect."
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/rentaltreex-wide-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/rentaltreex-large.jpg)Justin Casillas, who works for California-basedThe Living Christmas Company, hauls a tree to be delivered to a customer who will rent it for the holidays. Several West Coast companies and environmental groups now rent Christmas trees.
Jennifer Pitman is watching her toddler Beckett grow up along with their family Christmas tree.The Los Angeles mom is renting the same Charlie Brown-type potted tree she did last year and she notes the spruce — like her son — has "filled out" since last December. The company that delivered the tree Tuesday will pick it up after the holidays and store it at a nursery until next year, outfitted with a bar code to make sure it's the right one.
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/treex-inset-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/treex-large.jpg)A tag on a tree in the Living Christmas Company lot in Lomita, Calif., notes it's for rent, not sale.
Welcome to the fledgling rent-a-tree industry, which has gained ground in recent years as eco-minded consumers seek a natural tree without the possible guilt of dumping it curbside later.At least seven companies or environmental groups on the West Coast are now offering the service — another option in the evergreen debate whether natural or artificial trees are more eco-friendly (http://blog.nature.org/2010/11/christmas-tree-debate-real-or-fake/).
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/martinx-inset-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/martinx-large.jpg)Scott Martin, founder of The Living Christmas Company, talks to a customer on his mobile phone to confirm a delivery at a tree lot.
Pitman's reaction when she first heard about the Living Christmas Co. (http://livingchristmas.com/): "What a freakin' awesome idea," she says. The Los Angeles-area based firm, which did a few trial deliveries in 2008, rented 640 trees last year and expects more than a 1,000 rentals this year."It's definitely convenient," says Pitman, now nine months pregnant with her second child, of the $100 door-to-door service. "But the whole philosophy overrules everything else," she says. She grew up on Cape Cod where her family bought and disposed of a tree each year.
http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/pitmanx-wide-community.jpg (http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/green-house/2010/12/09/pitmanx-large.jpg)Scott Martin, left, talks to Jennifer Pitman and Kevin Barry after delivering their tree in the Los Angeles area.
This disposal issue is often cited by artificial tree fans, who also note a real tree's potential fire hazard and its messy pine needles.
"It's easier to store one (artificial trees) in the attic than go out a buy a new one each year," says Allen Blakey of The Vinyl Institute, representing vinyl manufacturers. Artificial trees, many from China, are made of polyvinyl chloride or PVC plastic.
Yet plastic trees are not easily recycled whereas real trees are ground into mulch for landscaping or used to prevent beachfront erosion, says Jennifer Berry of Earth 911, a company that offers a free U.S. database of such services. She says such "treecycling" is now available to at least 70% of people (http://earth911.com/recycling/garden/christmas-trees/facts-about-treecycling/) in metro areas with 50,000 or more residents.
Also, live Christmas trees absorb carbon dioxide and more than 99% are grown on farms so there's no deforestation, says Rick Dungey of the National Christmas Tree Association. He says Harris Interactive surveys indicate U.S. consumers bought 28.2 million farm-grown Christmas trees compared with 11.7 million artificial ones in each of the last two years.
Dungey sees renting as another option for promoting "real" trees.
It's not a new idea. Companies in the United Kingdom have been renting Christmas trees for years, and in the United States, a Portland-based business began sponsoring them in 1992.
"I wanted to turn Christmas into a tree-planting holiday," says John Fogel, owner of the Original Living Christmas Tree Company (http://www.livingchristmastrees.org/faq.html). In the Portland area, he charges up to $100 to deliver and pick up a potted tree that's later planted in watersheds.
Non-profit environmental groups are also renting potted trees: They include Friends of the Urban Forest (http://www.sfenvironment.org/greenchristmas/)in San Francisco and Adopt-a-Stream Foundation (http://www.streamkeeper.org/aasf/XMAS_Trees.html)in Everett, Wash.
"We've made huge strides" in trying to make the industry more convenient, says Scott Martin, founder of Living Christmas Co.
Aside from his company, others offering door-to-door rentals have sprung up in recent years. There's the Evergrow Christmas Tree Co. in Vancouver, British Columbia and Adopt a Christmas Tree, which has singing elves for deliveries in San Diego.
"It's a labor of love," says Monica Hudson, who last year co-founded the Rent a Living Christmas Tree (http://stores.rentxmastree.com/StoreFront.bok), which serves the central California coast. She says delivering and storing Christmas trees, often for less than $100 each, is a complicated business, but she says it's an "idea whose time has come."
Pitman agrees, though she knows her tree won't win any beauty contests. It's little, about four feet without the pot, and unevenly shaped. She doesn't mind: "Nature's not intended to be perfect."