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I'm not technical enough to understand why this is but would love to be able to ensure pots didn't just end up in landfill. I try to recycle smaller pots myself in my own veg garden but the larger sizes I now sadly know will go in the bin. If anyone knows a company in the South who will take them I'd love to know.
Just going though now pricing up pots for our new stock, some 5,000 and knowing most will end up in landfill, is somewhat sad. Also considering how much we are paying for them, it is just throwing money away.
At our old place we did take back all landscapers pots, and ended up with a wide range of sizes, along with all of the debris inside them, fag packets, sweet wrapers, rubble etc. , as pots out on site were used as bins. We did clean and re-use where possible, and threw away our customers rubbish as well. If Landscapers could grade pots for return and re-use, and not use them to fill with their rubbish from site, we would consider doing it again. We do not like paying to dispose of site rubbish from Landscapers, which is what we ended up doing.
With our old system we also used to end up with pots from many other suppliers who could not be bothered to offer a service to their customers.
Have looked seriously into recycled pots, but none are commercially available above the "dinky" size, 9cm - 3 litre. As all of our production is in 5 - 30 litre size, this route is currently unviable.
We will look into this further, but do need some feedback and cooperation to run it properly.
Linpac packaging and Wyevale had a pilot scheme running (I don't know if anything came of it).
http://www.diyweek.net/news/news.asp?id=11096
I think the big problem would be getting the volumes of pots collected if you were going to resell them (for either re-use or recycling).
I suppose the way to do it would be get a number of recycling bins placed at local garden centres. The hard graft would be grading / cleaning them.
Apparently, when the conatiner is full it is just emptied into a skip with all other general waste :(
Lying to customers to increase their 'green credentials'!
I gather this is because they do not sort, or rinse / wash the pots and just bag them up for collection. This, combined with the limited number of processors who can collect, and the low value, means the garden centre are not making any money, but indeed paying to have the plant pots collected.
from a bit of research i have done into plastic plant pot recyling i understand these points are very important:
flower pots are made from polypropylene, (pp), although some are made from polystyrene
the major barrier to recycling is contamination, ie soil and compost
This reduces the the potential value to any recycling
sorting into correctly identified types of plastic adds value when sold
Washing in a swill or rinse process will add greater value
bailed or palleted clean & sorted recycled pots will have highest values because of volume in handling and storage or transport
Setting up a "Bring collection service" where the public can return flower pots for recyling to a location like a garden centre would provide a good model with easy access and logical location to avoid increased carbon cost.
I will keep an eye on this thread to see what develops, as i really like the concept, even though it seems a challenge at present to make it viable, but not impossible !
1, The grade of plastic used for plant pots is not suitable for recycling into another product
2, To collect, clean and disinfect the pots for re-sale is not commercially viable
That just leaves it to the end-user to re-cycle. My local garden centre has a pot bin where you can place old pots and trays or take away any you may need for your self. But the bin always seem pretty full so I suspect they get emptied into the general rubbish quite frequently.
I think listing them on free cycle is a good way to get rid of unwanted pots or taking them to the local allotment
I've gleaned from what we've shared that recycling plastic plant pots is too expensive - I do however feel we have a moral obligation to find a way to either re-use pots or get them back into the supply chain at reasonable cost.
I read this on the British Plastics Federation site:
"All plastics can be recycled however the extent to which they are recycled depends upon both economic and logistic factors. As a valuable and finite resource, the optimum use for most plastic after its first use, is to be recycled, preferably into a product that can be recycled again.
The UK uses over 5 million tonnes of plastic each year of which an estimated 19% is currently being recovered or recycled. This figure is expected to increase significantly to over 25% of the all plastics consumed in the UK by 2010."
I've just joined a network for plastics professionals and asked the question: http://www.plastbook.com/question/plastic-plant-pot-recycling
I have spoken to some companies who make the plant pots, and discovered a familiar story that whilst it is possible to collect, sort, wash and then recycle plant pots, it is often abandoned as not commercially viable.
So i moved onto contacting Mark Burstall, BPF (British Plastics Federation) Recycling Council Chairman
I was a little concerned Mark Burstall would fall off his chair laughing at me, but no such thing happened, he was very enthusiastic and supportive !
Mark was very helpful and not at all phased by the concept of this thread, and he has told me that he will come back to me with his contacts who can make this work, as it already does to his knowledge.
I will report back and share this with everybody, indeed if this route produces the right answers, perhaps Phil Voice will take charge of this ?
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