I totally agree with the environmental aspect and am formally educated with a masters degree in environmental education/natural resources. We need our trees for carbon sequestration. Your comment makes me wonder how many are actually harvested for the holiday season in the US and around the world. Something I'm going to look into. Yes, our tree (I believe it are some kind of synthetic is used over and over - I usually don't throw stuff out if it is stil lusable. Thanks for your thoughtful comments.