As holiday decorations are being packed up and New Years resolutions are being scribbled down, millions of Christmas trees across the country are headed to the landfill or the wood chipper. But not so fast! That stately conifer could be put to good use in the field of medicine. A paper published in the  in the International Journal of Biomedical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology show evidence that the needles of Pseudotsuga menziesii, aka the Douglas fir, may be able to help sterilize nano devices destined for the human body.


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Post tags: allahbad, bacteria, bionanocomposite, chitosan, christmas tree, douglas fir, impants, India, infection, International Journal of Biomedical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, mnnit, nano devices, new year's, poushpi dwivedi, Pseudotsuga menziesii, silver nitrate

Did you know that the Christmas time tradition of adorning an evergreen tree with ornaments dates back to Latvia in 1510 when the first decorated tree was recorded? Or that Thomas Edison’s assistant Edward Johnson first proposed to mass produce electric lights for trees? Albeit simple at first, these innocent ideas have turned into a racket for western consumers who devour millions of trees every holiday season. That equates to a lot of greenery that could be used to sponge up greenhouse gases. So we came up with a simple list of four ways to keep those trees out of the landfill once the time comes to pack away the holiday decorations. Hit the jump to learn more.

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Post tags: christmas tree, christmas tree alternatives, Design, Edward Johnson, electric lights, greenhouse gases, holiday season, Latvia, Recycled Materials, recycling, sustainable design, thomas edison

Researchers at Lund University and Stockholm University in Sweden recently discovered that spruces, pines, and firs are exceptionally adept at absorbing methane, a greenhouse gas that’s about 25 times more harmful as carbon dioxide. Previous studies speculated that these types of trees actually emitted methane, but this study suggests that trees might be rising to the challenge, actually sucking methane out of the atmosphere in addition to carbon dioxide. If accurate, the study makes yet another case for protecting existing forests, planting more spruce, pines, and firs, and not cutting them down for use as Christmas trees!

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Post tags: christmas tree, Climate Change, forests, greenhouse gases, methane, Sweden, Trees

Read the rest of Taste Tree is Made Up of 5,000 Spare Porcelain Plates & Cups in Belgium

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Post tags: belgium, christmas tree, eco christmas, eco design, eco holidays, eco-art, green art, green christmas, Green Christmas Tree, green design, green holidays, hassalt, Inge Vanluyd, mooz, porcelain christmas tree, Recycled Materials, Stefan Vanbergen, taste tree, upcycled christmas tree, upcycled materials

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Post tags: Christmas, christmas tree, eco christmas tree, fake christmas tree, faux christmas tree, green christmas, Green Christmas Tree, green design" title="One Two Tree Eco Christmas Tree, green holidays, Green Xmas Tree, holiday tree, inflatable Christmas tree, managed forests, One Two Tree, plastic Christmas tree, plastic xmas tree, sustainable design, sustainable holiday decor, sustainable xmas tree, sustainably sourced wood, wooden christmas tree, wooden holiday tree, wooden xmas tree, xmas tree

With all the pressure to buy “stuff,” December has become the most commercialized time of year, but celebrating the holidays doesn’t have to mean spending lots of money on things you don’t need. In addition to the religious holidays, this time of year is traditionally a time to celebrate the natural world and the winter solstice.  In the spirit of the season, we’ve rounded up the many ways you can celebrate the holidays without getting caught up in the materialist mindset. From nature-inspired decorations to donating to charity, read on to see some of the top eco-friendly and natural traditions from around the world.

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Post tags: Charity, Christmas, christmas tree, consumerism, eco-friendly holidays, gifts, green christmas, green holidays, holiday food, holidays, kindness to animals, materialism, winter

Surfers Against Sewage have staged a sculptural protest against beach littering by upcycling Mountain Dew bottles into this awesome Christmas tree. The team took 55 bottles found strewn along the beach to create the structure, and then photographed and posted it on the soda company’s Facebook page (which Mountain Dew subsequently de-tagged). Encouraging recycling, awareness, and keeping with the spirit of Christmas — what a festive way to tell beach litterers what’s what!

+ Surfers Against Sewage

Image courtesy of Dom Ferris – Surfers Against Sewage

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Post tags: beach littering, christmas tree, christmas tree bottle sculpture, eco xmas tree, Green Christmas Tree, Green Xmas Tree, mountain dew, mountain dew christmas tree, recycled beach art, recycled bottle christmas tree, recycled christmas tree, recycling, surfers against sewage, xmas tree

If you want to get into the holiday spirit without having to cut down a poor, defenseless evergreen, check out this clever idea from the resourceful folks at the Gleeson Library in San Francisco. They stacked a bunch of their own books (bound in a rather apropos shade of green) to form a perfectly proportioned recycled Christmas tree to add cheer to the space. The best part? Once the holidays are over, all of the books go right back on the shelves they came from!

Via Recyclart

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Post tags: book christmas tree, christmas tree, christmas tree made of books, eco christmas tree, eco design, gleeson library, Green Christmas Tree, green design, holiday tree, library book tree, recycled christmas tree, Recycled Materials, San Francisco, sustainable design

Read the rest of The World’s Largest LEGO Christmas Tree Pops Up in London!

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Post tags: Art, bright bricks, Christmas, christmas tree, eco-art, faux christmas tree, faux tree, faux-fir christmas tree, green art, green design, green holidays, lego christmas tree, LEGOs, st. pancreas station, worlds tallest lego christmas tree

This past weekend the New York City Parks Department hosted their annual Mulchfest, providing New Yorkers with an easy, eco-friendly way to dispose of their holiday trees. With over 80 chipping or drop-off locations throughout the 5 boroughs, it was super easy for everybody to participate, including Inhabitat (me).

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Post tags: christmas tree, green christmas, Greenpoing Brooklyn, McCarren Park, mulch, mulchfest, mulchfest 2010, New York Parks Department, Recycle, Williamsburg Brooklyn

This year, Copenhagen’s annual Christmas tree will light up with the help of Danish citizens’ aerobic efforts. The energy produced by the riders of 15 bicycles in Copenhagen’s City Hall Square will light up the 700 LED bulbs that adorn the 17-meter-tall evergreen. The Christmas tree is one of several features in City Hall Square that will transform the civic space into an environmentally-friendly arena called Hopenhagen Live from December 7th to December 18th. Music, exhibitions and more throughout Copenhagen will help bring attention to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) occurring during the same time period.

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Post tags: christmas tree, Climate Change, climate change talks, copenhagen climage change conference, holiday cheer, united nations climage change conference

This week we shared sustainable Christmas tree options for this holiday season. And even though Christmas is over, Chainsaw MassACRE, an art installation by SWA Group– a landscape architecture firm– still makes some enlightening commentary on the reality of the tree farming that makes it possible to provide Christmas trees for the masses. At first glance, the piece appears deceptively festive with rows of suspended paper trees. However, it is certainly a somber reminder of the environment in which most Christmas trees are grown: a more complete view of the installation reveals a chainsaw floating ominously above the crop of suspended paper trees, and a bungalow surrounded by chainsaw cut-outs strewn about on the ground below.

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Post tags: chainsaw massacre, christmas tree, christmas tree chainsaw massacre, holiday art, industrial landscape, industrial tree farming, SWA group, swa group art, Xmas tree chainsaw massacre

As the holidays come to a close, the gifts have been given, the cookies have been eaten, and your Christmas tree is more than likely starting to look a little crisp around the edges. It is at this point in the holiday season that the realities of the Christmas tree dilemma start to sink in. If you have a live cut Christmas tree like the majority of the US population, you are probably beginning to contemplate how to dispose properly of the tree. This point in the cycle always seems so sad, considering this tree probably took at least 10 years to cultivate and grow and was cut down for a just a few weeks of holiday pleasure.

There are better, greener ways to do the Christmas tree thing (and we’ll talk about them in detail below), but if you already have a cut tree, your best option now is to send your little tannenbaum to a better place through Treecycling. These days, most communities have treecycling centers, where you can drop your trees off without hassle and know that they will go on to start a new life providing mulch, landscaping or erosion prevention.

For treecycling locations near you, look here >


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Post tags: christmas tree, recycling trees, Recycling your christmas tree, xmas tree