MOBOT Shows How To Use Environmental Consciousness by Recycling Plastics from Garden Centers and Botanical Gardens

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GMPRO Garden Center Magazine ran a story today about the need for garden centers and botanical gardens with environmental consciousness to find a way of recycling plastic garden pots.


" Steve Cline at Missouri Botanical Garden has created perhaps the most successful horticultural pot recycling program in U.S. This past year, the program collected more than 100,000 pounds of horticultural plastics."


According to the story, 80-million tons of plastic end up needing to be recycled every year.


"In the horticultural industry alone, about 350 million pounds of plastic is produced each year.


The Missouri Botanical Garden's Plastic Pot Recycling Program is the largest program of its kind, recycling both plastic pots and polystyrene cell packs and trays. Since 1998, this groundbreaking program has saved over 300 tons of plastic from reaching the landfill. The program has become hugely popular with gardeners in the St. Louis metropolitan area with many participants anxiously awaiting the Garden’s annual collection period."


Monrovia Growers donated money for the purchase of recycling trailers to be used as satellite collection centers. The program was so successful that the plan is to spread more trailers around St. Louis.


Basic guidelines include: "All garden plastics are accepted including cell packs, trays, all pots of all sizes and hanging baskets. Garden edging and plastic sheeting materials cannot be recycled. Metal rings or hangers on the pots need to be removed. All soil should be shaken out of the containers. No food plastic is allowed. It is not necessary to wash the pots and trays, but we appreciate working with the material more when it is reasonably clean. Please check for rocks, metal objects and foreign materials before submitting."




By the way, every plastic bottle of water you buy and throw away takes 1,000 years to biodegrade according to Eldr Magazine's Editorial this month. (A dear friend is on the cover so I received a copy of the magazine as a gift.) Environmentally conscious water consumers filter tap water and use re-usable bottles.


TODAY IN OUR GARDEN

It was a glorious sunny afternoon for being outside. The endless tasks of this time of year get taken on, one by one.

An old rose bush has to be taken out stem by stem. Minor tree pruning of all those tiny branches continues. Alfalfa hay mulch was applied to beds. More bulbs found homes in beds and pots. Bermuda grass was dragged unwilling out of iris corms. All of a sudden an afternoon was gone with a great feeling of satisfaction remaining.

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