Over 30 million "real" Christmas trees are sold in the US each year. That's a lot of trees. And while chopping down trees may logically seem like the un-green thing to do, environmental researchers tend to say otherwise. You see, artificial trees are made with the highly toxic substance PVC.

If you've still got your tree, be sure to recycle it instead of sending it to the landfill. By recycling your tree, you could be providing a habitat for wildlife, restoring sand dunes, or creating mulch. The uses depend on where you live, but the result is the same: disposing of your old tree becomes a positive instead of a negative.

Find out where you can recycle your tree locally by visiting Earth 911. And next year, you might want to consider going one step further by getting a live tree…roots and all!