加拿大推圣诞树出租服务 打造绿色圣诞

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.

环保也可以这么有节日气氛。日前，加拿大最西部地区的两家新兴企业推出一项生态环保型圣诞树的租赁服务。

只需花费约100美元，Evergrow圣诞树公司和Carbonsync圣诞公司就会将一棵盆栽圣诞树送到你家或办公室。三周后，在节日彻底过完后，公司再收走圣诞树。

Carbonsync公司计划在圣诞过完后将圣诞树捐赠给环保团体进行再次种植，而Evergrow圣诞树公司则表示将把圣诞树交给一家苗圃进行培育，等来年圣诞节时再出租。

圣诞树的价格一般为树木均价的四分之一，但在大多北美城市，人们过完圣诞后通常会将圣诞树做成腐叶土，或干脆丢弃。

Carbonsync圣诞公司的布拉德．梅杰在接受公共广播机构加拿大广播公司采访时说：“现在我们的做法是，在菲沙河谷大面积种树，然后将它们运往温哥华。”

“这些树需要6至12年才能长成，但只用来装扮一次圣诞节。之后这些树全被送往垃圾处理场，数量十分庞大。这是对资源的最大浪费。”

该公司出租的圣诞树在回收后可继续吸收大气中的二氧化碳，为防止全球变暖尽一份微薄之力，而不是被当作垃圾丢掉。

如果人们愿意，甚至可以每年在Evergrow公司租同一棵树，只要它们不要长得大到客厅容不下。

Vocabulary:

start-up: a business or an undertaking that has recently begun operation（新兴企业）

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（护根，覆盖物）

landfill：垃圾，垃圾填埋

doing one's bit: 尽自己的一份力量