Pots, pots, pots March 16, 2008

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, in the horticultural industry alone, about 350 million pounds of plastic is produced each year. Above is a small example of my own contribution to the problem. It seems ironic that gardeners, who are connected to the earth and who are trying to make a positive impact by improving its appearance, are inadvertent accomplices to the landfill debacle. Happily though, the tide is now turning, and there are some good options becoming available.

If you live near the Missouri Botanical Garden, you’re in luck. If not, there’s still a chance that a similar program will come to a town near you when town officials learn that since 1998, the Garden’s Plastic Pot Recycling Program has saved over 300 tons of plastic from ending up in a landfill. It’s the largest program of its kind, recycling both plastic pots and polystyrene cell packs and trays. The program has garnered great support from the gardeners in the St. Louis area.

The initiative has been so successful that the Garden eventually purchased three recycling trailers, which were placed at area garden centers where they were filled by customers on a weekly basis.

For 2008, the fleet of trailers will be expanded, and additional collection sites around the city will be established.

The garden pots and trays are recycled into landscape timbers, useful for building retaining walls and landscape borders. Timbers can be cut with a circular saw and drilled similar to wood.

Even better than a recycling program, Ball Horticultural Company has introduced Circle of Life™ Biodegradable Pots in partnership with Summit Plastics Company. The pots, available in several sizes, are made from rice hulls and when empty can just be crushed and added to a compost pile, where they will decompose in approximately six months. It may be some time before either of these options is readily available nationwide, but I’m happy to see that progress is being made in this area.