加拿大推聖誕樹出租服務 打造綠色聖誕

Going "green" has never been so festive as in westernmost Canada where two start-ups are offering an eco-friendly Christmas tree rental service for the holiday period.

For about 100 dollars, Evergrow Christmas Trees and Carbonsync Christmas will drop off a potted tree at your home or business and pick it up three weeks later after all the presents have been opened and Santa has parked his sleigh.

Carbonsync plans to donate its trees to habitat restoration groups for replanting after Christmas, while Evergrow says it will return them to a nursery to be cared for until next Christmas when they may be rented out again.

Trees normally cost four times less on average, but are usually turned into mulch or sent to garbage dumps after the holidays in most North American cities.

"What (folks) are doing now is they're growing these hordes of trees everywhere in the Fraser Valley to ship to Vancouver," Brad Major of Carbonsync Christmas told public broadcaster CBC.

"These trees grow anywhere from six to 12 years to be used for one Christmas, and all these trees go to the landfill, and it's this huge pile of trees," he said. "It's like the biggest waste of a resource."

The firms' trees will also continue to draw CO2 from the atmosphere, doing their bit to help curb global warming instead of ending up as waste.

And if a family wishes, they may even rent the same tree year after year from Evergrow, as long as it has not grown too large to fit in their living room.

環保也可以這麼有節日氣氛。日前，加拿大最西部地區的兩家新興企業推出一項生態環保型聖誕樹的租賃服務。

只需花費約100美元，Evergrow聖誕樹公司和Carbonsync聖誕公司就會將一棵盆栽聖誕樹送到你家或辦公室。三週後，在節日徹底過完後，公司再收走聖誕樹。

Carbonsync公司計劃在聖誕過完後將聖誕樹捐贈給環保團體進行再次種植，而Evergrow聖誕樹公司則表示將把聖誕樹交給一家苗圃進行培育，等來年聖誕節時再出租。

聖誕樹的價格一般爲樹木均價的四分之一，但在大多北美城市，人們過完聖誕後通常會將聖誕樹做成腐葉土，或乾脆丟棄。

Carbonsync聖誕公司的布拉德•梅傑在接受公共廣播機構加拿大廣播公司採訪時說：“現在我們的做法是，在菲沙河谷大面積種樹，然後將它們運往溫哥華。”

“這些樹需要6至12年才能長成，但只用來裝扮一次聖誕節。之後這些樹全被送往垃圾處理場，數量十分龐大。這是對資源的最大浪費。”

該公司出租的聖誕樹在回收後可繼續吸收大氣中的二氧化碳，爲防止全球變暖盡一份微薄之力，而不是被當作垃圾丟掉。

如果人們願意，甚至可以每年在Evergrow公司租同一棵樹，只要它們不要長得大到客廳容不下。

Vocabulary:

start-up:a business or an undertaking that has recently begun operation（新興企業）

nursery: a place where young trees or other plants are raised for transplanting, for sale, or for experimental study（保育室）

mulch：a covering, as of straw, compost, or plastic sheeting, spread on the ground around plants to prevent excessive evaporation or erosion, enrich the soil, inhibit weed growth, etc（護根，覆蓋物）

landfill：垃圾，垃圾填埋

doingone's bit: 儘自己的一份力量