Rent a Christmas Tree

Hiring a Christmas tree has been growing in popularity across the UK in recent years. Millions of people take decorating and finding the perfect Christmas tree as a yearly tradition, with that in mind some of them feel the nagging guilt of buying once a healthy living tree and then chuck it away once the celebrations have passed.

A Sustainable Christmas

Urged by environmental campaigners, people think it is more eco-friendly to hire one so this year even more garden centres and plant nurseries are involved. They have taken it upon themselves to offer customers a tree hiring service; however, it is still many people’s concern if they will experience the same festive buzz from hiring their Christmas tree. How exactly is this sustainable and does it work?

Renting a Christmas tree is actually quite simple. It is as easy as finding a local company providing these services and borrowing for the festive season. You spend the time to decorate and admire it and then once January settles in, you return it to have it replanted for the following year. You would usually be expected to pay a deposit in some places and follow some guidelines to keep the tree in great condition. Examples of such are simple tasks, such as watering it daily, keeping it away from direct heat and not have it indoors for extended periods of time.

Environmental Benefits

It is important to understand how all this is beneficial to the environment. It is not the fact that growing more trees is not sustainable. As many of us know trees are quite advantageous with absorbing carbon dioxide and offering wildlife a habitat. Trees are a crop and are usually grown as monoculture, which means they are sprayed with pesticides and limit biodiversity. What is truly damaging our environment though is how we dispose of our Christmas trees.

Comparing the carbon footprint, a two-meter-tall cut Christmas tree will end up in a landfill and has a footprint of 16kg CO2e and a recycled one produces only 3.5kg CO2e. This environmental plus most appeals to customers, however, it is good to point out again that trees should be treated as house plants in order to keep these statistics. The best eco-friendly solution would be growing your very own evergreen Christmas tree in your garden since it will cut transport emissions as well.

Thinking about the cost of renting a tree, it can vary from service to service but a rough estimate would be from £20 to £50, which will again depend on the size and species you’re looking for.

Want to be more environmentally friendly in your garden? We can help, call our design team today on 0116 210 0760.