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The environmental performance of protecting seedlings with plastic tree shelters for afforestation in temperate oceanic regions: A UK case study
Summary
This study looked at whether the plastic tubes used to protect young trees during forest restoration are worth their environmental cost, and found that skipping the plastic shelters altogether is actually better for the planet overall. If shelters must be used, regular plastic (polypropylene) beats "eco-friendly" bio-based plastics, and recycling the shelters afterward is the best disposal option, though the good news is that any carbon footprint from these plastics is tiny compared to how much carbon a growing tree soaks up over 25 years. While this study didn't directly measure microplastic pollution from degrading shelters, it's a reminder that even "
Restoration of forested land represents an effective strategy to achieve net-zero target emissions by enhancing the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The most common afforestation strategy envisages planting seedlings, which are germinated and grown to the desired age at tree nurseries, with plastic shelters to increase growth and survival of trees. This article presents a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study that compares the environmental performance of current and prospective scenarios for shelter-aided seedling planting compared with a base case where shelters are not employed. The study focuses on the UK, but results and conclusions are valid for other temperate oceanic regions. The scenarios investigated are a combination of different shelters materials and end-of-life (EoL) strategies. Our analysis demonstrates that (i) planting seedling without shelters is the most preferable option across most environmental impact categories (including Climate Change), and in terms of weighted results, (ii) polypropylene shelters are preferable to bio-based alternatives, including polylactic acid-starch blends and bio-polypropylene, (iii) recycling is the most environmentally advantageous EoL treatment. Our study also showed that that the carbon emissions of the scenarios investigated are negligible when compared to the amount of carbon sequestered by a tree in 25 years.