The Ugly Truth

Post by Johnny M 5 March 2025

The Plastic Scourge of Tree Tubes: Why Do Wo Accept This?

Across the countryside, tree tubes - those plastic guards meant to protect young saplings - are becoming an all too common sight. While they serve a purpose in shielding trees from browsing animals, their long-term impact on the landscape is harder to justify. Rather than being responsibly removed once they’re no longer needed, millions of tubes are left to degrade, splintering into fragments and littering the environment with plastic waste.

Imagine, for a moment, that instead of tree tubes, the plastic scattered across the hills and fields were discarded drinks bottles. There would be outrage. Rightly so - plastic pollution is a major environmental concern. We wouldn’t accept heaps of bottles littering the countryside, yet somehow, when it comes to tree tubes, the same level of concern doesn’t seem to apply. Why is this the case?

Is it because tree tubes are associated with a noble cause - reforestation, habitat restoration, and carbon sequestration? Does that make their eventual waste more palatable? It shouldn’t. The very purpose of these tubes is undermined if, in the process of planting trees, we end up polluting the landscape with plastic.

This quiet acceptance of tree tube waste needs to be challenged. Landowners, conservation groups, and government agencies must take responsibility for retrieval and disposal. Better yet, we need viable, biodegradable alternatives that won’t persist in the environment long after their usefulness has passed.

It’s time to question this double standard. If we wouldn’t tolerate discarded bottles cluttering our fields and woodlands, we shouldn’t accept the same from tree tubes. Reforestation efforts must not come at the expense of the very landscapes they seek to restore.