Flushed with wealth, the Once-ler rationalizes his short-sighted needs into arrogant self-righteousness, and the Lorax's helpless protests do not stop him. Over time, the Once-ler's deforestation spirals into a mass overproduction. However, his greedy and lazy relatives soon convince him to resume chopping down the trees. At first, keeping his promise, the Once-ler continues Thneed production by harvesting the Truffula Tree tufts in a slow, but sustainable manner. Then, the young businessman's Thneed invention becomes a major success and the Once-ler's family arrives to participate in the business. Eventually, the Once-ler promises not to chop another tree down, and the two seem to begin a friendship of sorts. The Lorax urges the Once-ler to leave the forest, but the Once-ler refuses. After stumbling upon a lush Truffula Tree forest valley, the Once-ler meets the guardian of the forest, the Lorax, after cutting down a Truffula Tree. Over Ted's various visits, the Once-ler recounts the story that when he was a young man, he departed his family to find good material for his Thneed invention and make a business. However, Ted continues to sneak out of O'Hare's sight (with his grandmother's encouragement) and learns more of the trees' history. After revealing that he has "security camera eyes" all over the city, O'Hare pressures Ted to stay in town. O'Hare explains to Ted that because trees produce oxygen free of charge, he considers it a threat to his business whenever he hears people talking about them. Ted agrees, but on his way home, he encounters the mayor of Thneedville, Aloysius O'Hare, who is also the proprietor of a company that sells bottled air to Thneedville residents. Once the boy finds him, the Once-ler agrees to tell Ted about the trees on the condition that he listens to the story over multiple visits. When Ted leaves Thneedville in search of the Once-ler, he discovers that the outside world is a contaminated, empty wasteland. His energetic Grammy Norma secretly tells Ted the legend of the Once-ler, who will tell anyone about trees if they brought him fifteen cents, a nail, and a shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail.
Ted has a crush on a local environmentalist, Audrey, who wants to see a "real tree" more than anything in the world, and decides to find one in order to impress her. Ted Wiggins is an idealistic boy, who lives in "Thneedville", a walled city that, aside from the human citizens, is completely artificial everything is made of plastic, metal, or synthetics with no living plants.