Recycling in general, plant pots in particular

[TonyF]

There was a bit on the BBC Breakfast programme this morning about recycling plant pots, an initiative between Wyevale's and Linpac (who make serious quantities of plant pots) which seems like a good idea. The 'guru' they had on explained that plant pots can't be re-used to sell plants in twice, so need to be disposed of and recycled into new plant pots. Interesting that when asked what the most important thing people could do to protect the environment is, he said "grow your own food".

Now there may be some obscure legal reason for this plant pot thing but one reason cited was plant pots being made in different sizes and types of plastic. So why not standardise plant pot sizes, wouldn't that be the best first step?

Now I reckon that many of the people who are seriously into the organic/GYO/grow to eat 'movement' are serious recyclers already and I'm sure that I'm not the only person who re-uses their plant pots/rootrainers etc year after year. I only ever dump the pots that are too old and broken to be reused (terracotta pots are always recycled as crocking) and then only into the recycling plant locally and not into general rubbish.

To me (and I live somewhere where politically the recycling argument was won years ago and where it's just something everybody does) our 'movement' is about the delights of gardening, growing your own food and protection of family (through GYO) and, longer term, our environment because we're all a bunch of scavengers and recyclers/reusers.

Perhaps the piece this morning was aimed at the newbies or the trendy gardeners - I just thought that it would have been better to have a proper GYO practitioner on the report rather than another 'Prince of Wales'' guru.

[Jardiniere]

didnt see the item but its interesting that in our village they ask you not to put big plastic plant pots into the recycling bin they have to go to the decheterie (however you spell it). I rarely throw them away because you can reuse and reuse - they only get thrown once they are totally split.
I also use those horrid polystyrene trays that meat comes in as trays for my seedling peat pots etc etc as you cant put polystyrene in the recycling bin either.

[pigletwillie]

We have standardised our pots up to the 1 litre size and keep them "in house" so to speak. Any odd sized ones that come our way are saved to plant spares of any thing that we have grown that are to be given away. By doing this we keep a good number of pots that we use regularly and recycle those that are unwanted.

Any bigger pots that are suitable for more established plants or rooted fruit bush cuttings for example are always saved as these tend to be thinner on the ground.

[Farmer_Gyles]

i'm trying to standardise all my pots, mainly for the convenience of storage - would be nice if i can pop down wyevale and swap my odd pots for lots of the same size

[rustylady]

Instead of the garden centres sending the old pots to the great recycler in the sky, why don't they put them in a skip or tray at the front of the shop and let us help ourselves? I recycle all my pots by re-using them until they are too broken to use. We've also picked up some lovely cell trays from contract gardeners planting out bedding who've been told to throw the cells away.

[Rocketron]

Instead of the garden centres sending the old pots to the great recycler in the sky, why don't they put them in a skip or tray at the front of the shop and let us help ourselves? I recycle all my pots by re-using them until they are too broken to use. We've also picked up some lovely cell trays from contract gardeners planting out bedding who've been told to throw the cells away.

So, how long are you going to spend in front of the skip trying to find a pot that isn't broken ?

[Farmer_Gyles]

one thing that always gets me is we were all recycling big time in the past
we used to get milk in glass bottles that were collected next day by the milkman - they were taken back to the dairy, steam cleaned, used again
same thing happened with beer bottles, fizzy drink bottles etc

these days milk only comes in plastic containers that can't easily be recycled
any other bottles and glass goes for recycling which means crushing, melting down and making new glass

what happened to just clean and reuse? surely that's cheaper and more environmentally friendly?
all the empties were collected at the time of delivery - these days we have separate council dustcarts pumping out fumes to collect the scrap glass for recycling - surely that wipes out half the benefits of recycling?
in some parts of some countries, recyclables are taken back to the supermarket, where they are collected at the time the supermarket receives a delivery - result is fewer lorries on the road etc

and when was the last time we bought sweets "loose" in a paper bag? what happened to a quarter of thingies? everything comes wrapped in plastic these days

and chips that were wrapped in newspaper - never did us any harm

our recycling system is sooooo messed up!

[Sue]

Hi
If you want to recycle pots you can't use yourself, you could try asking at plant sellers at Farmer's Markets, they're always grateful for excess pots.
Sue

[Sue]

And Farmer Gyles
Couldn't agree more but do wonder if some excess packaging is there because of health and safety issues and also in case the suppliers could get sued because of possible contamination or tampering?

You can't even get meat from the Farmer's Market without if being encased in plastic - they say they're not allowed to sell it otherwise but for some reason some of the fish is on display without plastic, although when you buy it its then put in a plastic bag. I was going to go shopping armed with greaseproof paper to get them to take it out of the plastic so I could rewrap but then I read in a new book that greaseproof paper doesn't compost well.

I just need to get organised and write to manufacturers to tell them I've stopped buying particular products because of over wrapping. One tea came in a plastic wrapped box and then discovered each tea bag came in a plastic envelope - never again.

Sue

[daleclarke]

[quote=Farmer_Gyles;198790]
"we used to get milk in glass bottles that were collected next day by the milkman - they were taken back to the dairy, steam cleaned, used again
same thing happened with beer bottles, fizzy drink bottles etc"

There is a problem with reusing glass that is the cleaning process causes a waste product that is expensive to get rid of, as new laws are very strict on effluent that goes into the water system so any company that goes that route would have to have their own effluent plant! Probably very expensive.

Possibly the way forward is Plant Plastics, that are easily composted, I like the sound of the Corn Starch products and if you can make biofuels surely they must be able to be used in the plastics industry.

My biggest bugbear is Yoghurt Drink and margerine/butter pots I wish they would goto foil wrapped or even light cardboard), can not find anywhere that recycles them. They cannot go in the ordinary plastic as it contaminates the other plastic and it can not go into the carton skip as they are not cardboard based and I can only keep so many for the garden.

[Two_Sheds]

My biggest bugbear is Yoghurt Drink and margerine/butter pots I wish they would goto foil wrapped or even light cardboard), can not find anywhere that recycles them. They cannot go in the ordinary plastic as it contaminates the other plastic and it can not go into the carton skip as they are not cardboard based and I can only keep so many for the garden.

Our plastics are shipped to China to be made into more plastic tat (Amazon.co.uk: Confessions of an Eco Sinner: Travels to Find Where My Stuff Comes from: Fred Pearce: Books). It's not really good for the planet. Why buy yoghurt drinks at all? They aren't essential. Reducing plastic use would be better, by refusing to buy it. Not totally achievable of course, but if you're serious about being green you can leave excessive packaging in the shop, boycott products, write to the retailers, etc etc. It is catching on: some Easter Eggs were produced with less packaging this year.

[Farmer_Gyles]

There is a problem with reusing glass that is the cleaning process causes a waste product that is expensive to get rid of, as new laws are very strict on effluent that goes into the water system so any company that goes that route would have to have their own effluent plant! Probably very expensive.

crush + remanufacture still causes a waste product - the waste is still on the material that gets crushed
i'm sure clean and reuse must be more environmentally friendly than crush and remanufacture - and could be done on a larger scale than previously, meaning fewer effluent plants (if they're actually needed??)

My biggest bugbear is Yoghurt Drink and margerine/butter pots

we used to get butter / lard etc wrapped in foil or greaseproof paper - can still get it like this in sainsburys - but we're all going for the "more healthy" veggie oil or margarine now .........

[daleclarke]

Why buy yoghurt drinks at all? They aren't essential.

They maybe not essential to you, but I need these drinks to stop my stomach lining from being destroyed (what is left of it) by the drugs I have to take for my MS. Milk is not enough and the little good bacteria are there in numbers to help people like myself and they do work, extremely well. This in turn stops me taking more tablets with even more side effects.

I do boycott products, I use eco toiletries and washing items and buy locally along with other things. Nevertheless, some issues are not black and white and I find some 'Green' iniatives do not look into the full issues of people with disabilities or who are aged as a instance.

Take car use they say tax the cars & petrol for gas guzzlers, but this then leaves me stuck at home because I can not afford the petrol for my Picasso which I have to have so that I can get in out without too much pain or I can actually get my sticks into. Also local produce is actually affected because of high diesel costs as their delivery costs make them un-economical, as happened in my neighbourhood, he just could not ask his customers to fork out anymore as delivery was costing more than the goods. I laugh when someone in our local paper said go and pick it up yourself, so instead of one van delivering it, it would of ended up being 200 people getting in cars and picking it up very eco-friendly...