Shopping Smarter
I've been trying to reduce my impact on the environment when I shop for various things. I've had to do more research before I purchase items. For example, me and my family have started to substitute beef for plant-based products for things such as burgers. Cattle farming can unfortunately put disproportionally larger amounts of carbon into the environment compared to other forms of meat protein.
I've also been using reusable bags instead of plastic bags for produce. These bags are washable and ventilated. I bring several of these bags (see image 5418 below) in a larger re-usable grocery shopping bag. This way I'm not tempted to grab a plastic bag when shopping. If plastic bags go into the ground, they take a very long time to decompose. Many of these bags drain to the ocean where unsuspecting sea turtles eat them, mistaking them for jellyfish.
I've also started to use my compost bin for various food items and empty pizza boxes. We've also discovered that real Christmas trees can be compostable as well. However, my family and I have decided to use an artificial Christmas tree in order to lessen our overall impact on the environment. We have had ours for around 6 years and plan on using it for many years to come.
The question of whether or not to use a real of artificial Christmas tree is a complex one. Both of them take significant amounts of land and resources, and both are harmful to the environment. We believe that their is less of an impact when using an artificial Christmas tree. Christmas tree farms do act as a carbon-sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, people need to be careful not to burn the trees when they're finished with them. This would release all the carbon into the air at once. Instead, it is better to dispose of them in a landfill, or through composting.
Although artificial trees aren't perfect either, if you use them for several years, it can have it's own advantages. For example, if you want to reduce global energy use as well as carbon emissions, keeping an artificial tree for a long time might be better. However, if you're goal is to support local wildlife, a real tree would do that better, you just have to be cautious of how to dispose the tree.
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Link to Article, "Are Real or Fake Christmas Trees Better?": https://blog.nwf.org/2022/11/are-real-or-fake-christmas-trees-better-for-the-environment/