New Whitepaper Outlines Importance of Container Disposal Plan
August 17, 2020 The Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) has developed a “Plastic Pots and the Green Industry” whitepaper that outlines the production, use, disposal, and environmental impacts of garden containers.
The green industry is the driver of plastic plant pot production and use, and the report describes the development of this industry, its phenomenal growth and successes, and the resulting significant negative ecological effects from the accumulation of used pots. Largely single-use, the majority of plastic horticultural pots are disposed of in landfills. Although the materials are potentially recyclable, the product is difficult to recycle due to contamination, and the predominantly black material results in frequent inability of scanners to distinguish the resin content and enable sorting.
On top of this, markets for this type of low-quality recycled material have plummeted, resulting in an increasing cache of used material in the U.S. and Canada. At the same time, production of plastic products using virgin content has increased dramatically. Although numerous producers are engaged in developing alternative pots, matching the economy and durability of plastic pots has been challenging, and growers have been hesitant to adopt them. The paper presents the consequences of increasing production and use of these pots without a solution to the problems of disposal.
APLD joined with the Missouri Botanical Garden, a leading public garden in St. Louis, MO (which began blazing this trail with its own ambitious initiative to recycle plastic pots) to find the facts and to compile them in the report. Click here to download a copy of the report
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