Let's agree on one thing before read this blog article: Any form of waste is against sustainability! Less waste = more sustainable!

Once in a while, someone would ask us: Are TreeDiaper® treemats made of plastics? We will tell them “Yes, but…” Rarely are we allowed to finish the sentence before interrupted: “I won’t use them because I don’t want to pollute our environment.” More often than not, they would walk away and do not give us an opportunity to elaborate the environmental sustainability of TreeDiaper® technology. Today, I decided to run the numbers about the “plastic” nature of TreeDiaper® and show you how environmentally sustainable TreeDiaper® technology is.

First, we can’t live without plastic in the modern life. Go to your closet and look at the labels of your clothes. Count how many times you see the word “polyester”, “nylon”, “acrylic”. How about your shoes, belts, backpacks, furniture, car parts, house, paintings, pictures frame, toys, pens, phones, phone cases, computers, water bottles, etc. If you get rid of all plastics, how much stuff do you have left?

Second, TreeDiaper® treemats are made of plastic materials, but so are the alternatives such as watering bags, many parts on watering trucks, hoses, footwears of workers, gloves etc. Let’s look at the situation from the plastic aspect first.

TreeDiaper® saves 90+% of watering needs as proven by many case studies. For the example of the Richmond Va Road Median Case Study: The City of Richmond watered the trees with watering bags 20 times in two years. They didn’t have to water the trees with TreeDiaper® treemats once! The water trucks travel 15 miles to fill 20 bags before returning to their base station and refilling the tank again. That is 1.5 mile per bag per refill (15X2 miles for 20 refills). For two years, each tree accounted for 30 miles by the truck. Assuming the truck uses 6 tires that weigh 120 lbs each and last 100,000 miles. The weight of tires consumed during this operation was 6 (tires)x120 (lbs/tire)x30(miles/tree)/100,000(miles) = 0.22 lbs/tree. Tire usage alone is 1/4 the weight of the TD36R treemat used on the TreeDiaper® trees. It is worse than just plastics used on the job. Where the rubber hits the road, a portion of these tires get turned into microplastic particles by abrasion (according a National Geographic report, 28% of microplastics in our environment come from tires). The worn tires are piled up on the landfills.

If we consider the watering bags (0.85 lb each for most brands) and proportions of the water hoses, water tank, and other plastic parts of the truck, the total amount of plastic worn during the two year period is well above the weight of TreeDiaper® treemats (TD36R is about 0.89 lbs).

Okay, you do not use watering bags. In that case, the watering frequency would have to be doubled. So would the microplastics from the tires and other plastic components used on the watering trips.

--------Now, we can call it even on the "plastic" aspect between TreeDiaper® treemats and the alternatives. The following two points are the net gain on sustainability if you use TreeDiaper® treemats.--------

Third, the other aspect of the using water bags and watering trucks to refill the bags is the fuel costs. Assuming the gas mileage of the watering trucks is 4 mpg when loaded and 8 mpg when unloaded, the Richmond case used 5 gallon fuel/tree for watering bag trees (20 refills, 30 miles/tree, as shown above). The 5 gallon fuel generated about 25-30 lbs CO2 emission, depending on if it is gasoline or diesel. With today’s diesel price ($3.9/ga, Richmond Va on Feb 12, 2025), it would cost the city $19.50 just on fuel.

Fourth, the water and the labor used to refill the watering bags are also a big waste. In regions with water shortage, Using TreeDiaper® technology can save 90+% of water. A landscape architect run a trial in Houston during their 2022-2023 droughts. With the extreme droughts, he only had to water his tree 3 times during that two driest two years over the last decade. Watering trees on the hot summer days is considered as the some of worst working conditions, which is why it is typically assigned to the entry-level employees.  

To our knowledge, watering trees for 20 times in two years is rather low, which was the reason why all the trees cared with watering bags all died in less than 2 years. In regions with longer dry seasons or droughts like Texas, Arizona, or California, watering costs can easily be 5-10 fold of Richmond Va.  You can do your own calculation based on the number of watering trips you have to do for your trees. In that situation, fuel alone may cost more than TreeDiaper® treemats during their establishment period.

Conclusion: TreeDiaper® technology boosts the sustainability of your program by significantly increasing survival rate with 10 times less on labor, materials, and fuel/emission. If you have a landscaping business, TreeDiaper® technology can drastically reduce your liability and increase your profitability.