Gardeners compost or sharing plants and are creative when building planting beds or using containers. I hope to intitiate some discussion on other forms of recycling in the garden. Most gardeners accumulate those plastic plant pots which are not accepted by municpal recycling programs. Not too long ago, at a BC Master Gardener meeting, I learned about an organization called Emerging Hope provides horticultural training to those individuals in need and on the fringes of society. They apparently accept plants and pots and tools to help with the training. Botanical gardens volunteers also will reuse the pots for their plant sales. Are there other programs out there that accept the black #1, #2, #3 pots? Why aren't those plant pots made of recycled materials? Thanks
I use containers to transplant seedlings in them when they have outgrown the jiffy pots but are not yet ready to be planted outdoors. This way I get more time before moving the plants outdoors and I don't have to buy pots for this. I also use these as beds for flowering plants where the seeds can be put closer together. I reuse these containers until they fall apart and then I recycle them anyway (in broken pieces so the company doesn't notice what they used to be).
I think Vancouver's recycling program does accept the black pots... But reuse comes before recycling, and Craigslist is a great way to find people who will see treasure in your extra whatevers. List it for free, and it's pretty quickly found a home. Including used pots.
One of our local greenhouse suppliers has a bin about 4 feet square and three feet high. People drop off garden pots, etc., that they no longer require. Anybody can take what they want. I often drop pots off and pick something up. It is sort of like a free suprise gift shop.
Here is another program at Missouri Botanical Garden for which I envy St. Louis-area gardeners: Plastic Pot Recycling. They make landscape timbers out of them. A 5-foot by 6-foot timber 8 feet long costs $40. One key to setting up a similar program is to find a company that can grind up the pots, I think. http://www.mobot.org/hort/activ/plasticpots.shtml
My 4 year old son uses old pots as building materials in his dirt pile. We don't have a sand box, just a dirt pile - which is more fun for construction. He uses them to move dirt and build towers. The sturdy ones are great for this, I use the flimsier ones for repotting seedlings
