indeed so. "Back in the day" when I finished a lolly, I used to love unrolling the "stick" which was rolled up paper. A very realistic contribution to the war on plastic would be if cotton buds used these. The plastic "sticks" come through sewage treatment plants intact and end up straight into rivers / oceans.
Perhaps we should start by putting 'Re-use or return' stickers on black pots. GC's and nurseries should be made to accept black pots back so they can be washed and re-used. Surely it would save them money long term?
Gardening. The cause of, and solution to, all of my problems.
Perhaps we should start by putting 'Re-use or return' stickers on black pots. GC's and nurseries should be made to accept black pots back so they can be washed and re-used. Surely it would save them money long term?
Can you explain how that would "save them money long term" There's sorting at the garden centre,transportation costs,with the added road congestion/ pollution which goes along with it, sorting costs wherever they end up, water, presumably extra equipment/labour needed, and no doubt chemicals to wash the pots so they're clean enough to re-use, more sorting........ At the end of the process it's the customer who has to cover these costs. Are they/ WE prepared to pay for it?
Devon.
0
wild edgesThe north west of south east WalesPosts: 7,505
Coir has been mentioned, but with a figure of 500,000,000 pots and bedding trays used every year in the UK alone, I can't see that being a viable option. Imagine how much coir would have to be shipped half way across the planet every year to sustain that amount, and would there actually be enough coir to cope that demand? Assuming it's not just us Brits who want an alternative to plastic pots , I can't see coir being answer.
Plastic pots don't just magically appear you know. The oil has to be extracted, refined, shipped, made into plastic beads, shipped again to the manufacturer, processed and formed, packaged, shipped, used, shipped, consumed and if you're lucky recycled into the bead stage again which no doubt involves more pollution than just washing them for reuse. Surely the man hours involved at the nursery to reprocess can't cost much more than buying tens of thousands of new pots all the time? The delivery couriers are there most days for collections so drop offs can't be too hard to streamline.
By standardising and reusing pots in the industry you'd avoid most of the need for things like coir and could just use recycled paper or similar for the short time between the plant being sold to you and being planted. I can see that coir or similar would be needed in some situations though where sellers don't have the facilities to repot as you buy as in supermarkets etc.
It's things like the root trainers and plug trays that really annoy me as there's basically no option to reuse those.
A great library has something in it to offend everybody.
According to the article on GW " the pots are 98% recycled material" As I've said before, I'm all for a solution , but , forgive me, glibly saying " they should be banned " with absolutely no clear alternative is just facile.
This has been a laudable thread, gardeners on the whole are people that want to improve the planet and there are many examples of us trying to do so. However, it is naive in the extreme, to believe that we can just abandon the use of plastic in the garden. Many alternatives come with their own problems, some of which are equally detrimental to the health of the planet. It is fantastic that we are talking about the problem, but to retain credibility, we should not talk about banning the use of plastic, before we have properly looked at the alternatives.
He calls her the chocolate girl Cause he thinks she melts when he touches her She knows she's the chocolate girl Cause she's broken up and swallowed And wrapped in bits of silver
This has been a laudable thread, gardeners on the whole are people that want to improve the planet and there are many examples of us trying to do so. However, it is naive in the extreme, to believe that we can just abandon the use of plastic in the garden. Many alternatives come with their own problems, some of which are equally detrimental to the health of the planet. It is fantastic that we are talking about the problem, but to retain credibility, we should not talk about banning the use of plastic, before we have properly looked at the alternatives.
“I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh
Posts
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog
"Back in the day" when I finished a lolly, I used to love unrolling the "stick" which was rolled up paper.
A very realistic contribution to the war on plastic would be if cotton buds used these. The plastic "sticks" come through sewage treatment plants intact and end up straight into rivers / oceans.
It’s the cheaper ones that still use them ... and people buy the cheap ones ... this is what will happen with pots.
There's sorting at the garden centre,transportation costs,with the added road congestion/ pollution which goes along with it, sorting costs wherever they end up, water, presumably extra equipment/labour needed, and no doubt chemicals to wash the pots so they're clean enough to re-use, more sorting........
At the end of the process it's the customer who has to cover these costs. Are they/ WE prepared to pay for it?
As I've said before, I'm all for a solution , but , forgive me, glibly saying " they should be banned " with absolutely no clear alternative is just facile.
However, it is naive in the extreme, to believe that we can just abandon the use of plastic in the garden.
Many alternatives come with their own problems, some of which are equally detrimental to the health of the planet.
It is fantastic that we are talking about the problem, but to retain credibility, we should not talk about banning the use of plastic, before we have properly looked at the alternatives.
Cause he thinks she melts when he touches her
She knows she's the chocolate girl
Cause she's broken up and swallowed
And wrapped in bits of silver