David Attenborough has rightly highlighted the horrors of plastic waste and, though seed trays and plant pots haven’t hit the headlines like coffee cups and cotton buds, they do matter. After all, gardeners spend £1.5 billion every year. Our job is to reduce, re-use and recycle products: not buy more than we must; keep on using things; and, finally, recycle.
“Reduce” by avoiding impulse buying. Find alternatives to plastic: when mulching, spread a thick layer of paper on the ground and cover with a biodegradable mulch, like woodchip. And use wooden, not plastic, plant supports.
As you’d expect, with so many empty feed bags around, I never buy bin liners. Large plastic compost bags are just as good. And I find plastic mushroom trays ideal for sowing: they hold more compost for seedlings, so are easier to keep moist, and they’re a more compact size.
But 500 million plant pots are sold every year in the UK and we can’t re-use them all. Councils generally won’t recycle hard plastic and, when recycling, their sorting machines don’t “see” black, so can’t recycle it.
Six years ago, WRAP, the English recycling charity, conducted a trial showing that these “blind” machines could identify a pigment inserted into black plastic. This would cost 0.5p per item, a price many manufacturers and retailers wouldn’t pay.
So, in March last year, WRAP recommended that local authorities should consign all black plastic to landfill. This is disgraceful and legislation should be passed to require manufacturers to take the necessary steps to rectify the matter.
In the meantime, we gardeners should use the power of our purses to nudge producers in the right direction. They may start using recycled material themselves and add the necessary colouring pigment if the demand is there.
Using recycled plastic to manufacture pots and trays is the first step for producers, so we should support firms that already do so. Originally a family nursery in Essex, in 1963 H Smith Plastics was born when it began producing its own plastic inserts for wooden seed trays. It then started supplying other nearby nurseries and Smiths is now a UK-wide business.
Angela Smith assured me that all their vacuum and pressure formed containers are made from 100% reclaimed material. “We supply commercial growers and gardeners alike and we have plenty of Scottish customers.” (See www.plantcell.co.uk)
Other manufacturers, like Garland, use recycled plastic in many more products. Its managing director, Miles Glendinning, sees how the wind’s blowing, with everyone worrying about single-use plastics, and he believes this will affect what people buy. He told me: “We hope and expect that products made from recycled plastics will sit more easily with consumers. We intend to stress that, by weight of material processed, around 98 per cent of Garland’s plastic material is recycled.” (See www.garlandproducts.com)
However, we’ve still got a long way to go. Zero Waste Scotland, our equivalent to WRAP, recognises that: “The extent of plastic pollution is staggering and there’s an urgent need to change our attitude towards single-use plastic. The Scottish Government is already committed to decisive action to tackle single-use plastics and move towards a more circular economy.”
Individually, we can make a difference, but I’m convinced legislation is also essential.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here