Why Flocking a Christmas Tree is Bad for the Environment | If you don’t know what tree flocking is, it’s where some sort of white mixture is sprayed to your real or fake Christmas trees to elicit that white, snowy Christmas. And ironically, because of Global Climate Change, a lot of us won’t be seeing snow for awhile.
Related: 6 Eco-Friendly Christmas Tree Options
The mixture can be anywhere from cellulose to flame retardant adhesives. The ingredient lists are all over the place and really hard to tell exactly what it’s made from.
I cringe when I see so many opting to spray their real trees this year just to make the tree a little extra white. Doing this negates your ability to donate or recycle your real tree. It has to be landfilled.
Why Christmas Tree Flocking is Bad for the Environment
Related: 8 Ways to Recycle Your Real and Fake Christmas Trees
Because it’s so difficult to know for certain what trees are sprayed with toxic chemicals and which ones are covered in cellulose, recycling facilities and holiday tree collections refuse to take them.
I’m sure you just put that together. Flocking your trees ensures that it will make its final resting place a landfill. Hot diggity darn.
What frightens me the most about this stupid trend is that I’ve seen dozens of Social Media influencers jump on this “I want to be flocking trendy with my tree this year and wreck the environment while I’m at it.” And what happens when top influencers do this nonsense? Their followers follow suit. So please, don’t.
This is a short PSA but I think it’s an important one to get out before this trend gets any more popular than it is. Just keep those trees naked.
If you want to know what you can do with your naked real trees or fake trees after they’ve exhausted their life check out 8 Ways to Recycle Your Real and Fake Christmas Trees.
And if you really want a flocked tree, look for an artificial one – preferably secondhand.
Other ways you can make your real tree seem “snowy.”:
- Use intertwining white ribbon
- reuse Halloween spider webbing to look like snow drifts on the limbs
- Use cotton stuffing or polyfil from old pillows or stuffed animals
Just stay away from the artificial snow sprays, please!
Are these the same social media influencers who post shopping hauls of all the cheap fashion they just bought in YouTube? Sigh…
Ughh that’s the worst.