The Sustainable Choice

Why Plastic Recycling is Vital for Horticultural Sustainability

At East Jordan Plastics, we believe in sustainable practices done right. For nearly 80 years, we’ve been determined to create environmental-friendly solutions that meet growers’ quality standards—and continue to evolve our plastic recycling practices in an effort to inspire lasting change in the horticulture industry. Because it’s one thing to feel good about sustainability; it’s another to act on it.

The more we recycle, the more sustainable we are.

With decades of experience, proven processes, and manufacturing expertise—we’re working to develop 100% recyclable plant trays, pots, and containers. While we do this to help protect our planet, it also makes better business sense. We believe consumers are more likely to make purchasing decisions if they’re buying a product they believe helps the environment.

At this time, polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) are two common plastics that are not curbside recyclable in most municipalities. Luckily, our closed-loop recycling program gives these plastics an opportunity to become part of something more—the chance to be continuously recycled into a usable, effective product.

How a closed-loop recycling process works

At our 150,000-square-foot South Haven, Michigan and 260,000-square-foot Lyons, Georgia facilities, our team recycles PP, PS, and HDPE containers generated from both greenhouses and retail stores.

At the retail level, consumers bring back their used growing containers and trays to participating locations (including larger big-box retail outlets). Most participating locations have a shipping rack bannered with signs to instruct consumers to return their containers after planting their plants.

When the shipping racks are full, and the grower returns to the store to deliver new plants, they take the full shipping rack back to their greenhouse location where the containers are either reused or sorted and consolidated for our team to recycle.

At the greenhouse level, growers consolidate their used containers and trays, any surplus containers, obsolete tags, and trays. Growers generally have a baler set up and three different sort bins at the ready—one sort bin for each plastic container type that comes back to the greenhouse. Workers then sort the plastic off the racks into each of the three bins. When a sorting bin is full, they can wheel them over to the baler and make a bale.

It’s important that the material is sorted, consolidated, and bailed by material type. When a grower has enough material, whether it be a full load or less than a truckload that needs to be moved, we coordinate for our trucks to pick the material up, bring it back to our South Haven or Lyons facilities, and turned into quality, clean regrind to be used at any of our manufacturing facilities to make new containers.

Want to be a part of the solution?

Getting involved with our recycling program is as easy as making a call (1-800-353-1190) or contacting us via our website (eastjordanplastics.com). We want to talk with any grower or retailer who wants to recycle—because the more horticultural containers we can collect for recycling and keep within our industry, the fewer that will end up in a landfill. Here are a few of the benefits of recycling plastic plant containers:

• Containers and trays made from recycled plastic save up to 60% of the energy required to make the same product from virgin material.
• The recycling closed loop for plastic plant containers and trays is repeated each time the plastic material is recycled with significant energy recovery gains.
• Recycled horticultural containers and trays avoid landfills and are returned directly to the growing container manufacturing stream.
• Reduces waste removal fees by keeping growing containers out of dumpsters and landfills.
• Enhances the growing container industry’s public image as a wise steward of the environment by reusing sustainable plastic growing containers.
• Creates opportunities for most plastic containers and trays to be reused.
• Increases retail foot traffic as consumers return their plastic plant containers and trays to garden centers.
• Achieves a better sustainable footprint due to trash reduction.

Together, let’s make The Sustainable Choice.

As the largest recycler of horticultural containers in North America, we’re striving for a sustainable future as a company dedicated to doing the right thing—and we have decades of experience to back that up. It’s been a passion of ours since 1947 when we started as a small, family business producing wooden flats.

Making a difference within the horticultural industry, we bring back used plastic containers and trays from growers nationwide and recycle nearly 20 million pounds of used horticultural containers annually. We then create sustainable solutions such as our innovative, space-saving SHUTTLE POT^® STADIUM^® line of products, which have a direct, positive impact on the carbon footprint left by the horticulture industry. This is part of our commitment to implementing a fully energy-efficient, closed-loop plastic recycling process that delivers high-quality plastic products. It’s better for growers, the industry, and the planet as a whole.