The question of plastic

David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II series triggered long-overdue mass public concern about plastic. Gardening bloggers and retailers haven’t wasted any time in stepping up to fill the discussion space. The most urgent problem, of course, is plastic waste and our culture of disposability. The gardening industry is as guilty as any other of promoting single-use plastic for convenience.

Yet plastic is an extremely useful material – it has transformed gardening, making it accessible to many more people. Before plastic plant pots were widely available (pre-1970s), most garden plants were grown from seed, sold in heavy clay pots, or had to be ordered from a catalogue and delivered ‘bare root’. The advent of the light-weight plastic pot – not to mention lighter plastic tools and plastic bags for delivering compost – has revolutionised the gardening industry, allowing regular home gardeners much greater access to plants and gardening support. Considering the all-round physical and mental health benefits of gardening, this can’t be an entirely bad thing, especially if it means more people are creating urban and suburban wildlife habitats.

Moreover, some plastic things – water butts, composting bins, watering cans – are very durable and can be used for many years. I have a plastic trug, which I have had for years and use all the time. Large plastic tubs for plants can be more robust and tend to be cheaper than terracotta (though not as elegant). They are also lighter, so you can move them around the garden more easily, which can be useful if you are short on space and grow vegetables in tubs.

But plastic waste and the sheer extent of plastic usage in gardening is still a major cause for concern. It’s great to see that Monty Don is now tackling the question of plastic in the current series of Gardeners’ World. Monty admits he doesn’t have an answer for everything (that’s why we love him!), but he has been trying different approaches over the weeks, and he is always conscious of when he is using plastic and what alternatives might be available.

Monty rightly points out that you shouldn’t immediately throw out all of your plastic stuff. The best thing to do is re-use your plastic as much as you can until it is no longer useable. Some plastic things, such as seedling pockets, are very flimsy but even these can be used a few times.

The regular plastic plant pots can also be re-used and I find that it’s always useful to have plastic pots of various sizes available for seedlings or cuttings. However, over the years, gardeners amass huge numbers of plastic pots and we can’t re-use all of them. Of course, other people may just be starting out, so there may be a local allotment or school that will welcome your old pots, or you could try selling them at car boot sales or putting them on Freecycle.

But can we recycle them? Plant pots are usually made from high density polyethylene (HDPE) or polypropelene; these are harder to recycle than polyethylene terephthelate (PET), which is what plastic drink bottles are made from. So local councils are unlikely to accept plastic plant pots for recycling. But with an estimated 500 million pots in circulation every year, more should be done to tackle the recycling challenge.

A few weeks ago, we asked our local garden centre, the excellent Sunshine, whether they would accept plastic pots if we returned them. They told us that we could return the ones that came from them originally and their suppliers would accept them back. However, not all of the pots have the name of the garden centre on their label. As yet, there are very few plant pot recycling schemes, and some have even been discontinued, due to a lack of capacity among recycling companies. However, Which reports that Dobbies and Notcutts collect pots at all of their stores.

Non-plastic pots are increasingly being promoted in garden centres. They are currently more expensive and less widely available than plastic pots, but if we support their use, this can hopefully change over time. The Hairy Pot Plant Company sells plants in (hairy) biodegradable pots made in Sri Lanka from coir fibre made out of the waste husks from coconut farms. (These generate air miles, yes, but also fair trade opportunities.) Various other types of biodegradable pot are available online, but you should avoid ones that contain peat or those wrapped in plastic packaging for delivery!

You can always make your own planters – from newspaper or the inner tubes of toilet rolls. I have been trialling cardboard toilet roll tubes with cucumber and courgette seeds, with pretty good results so far. I planted the seedlings in potting compost in the cardboard rolls and placed them in a – yes – durable plastic tray for the water to drain into. The seedlings are coming through quite happily in a cold frame. The great thing is that you can then simply plant the seedlings, cardboard and all, in a larger pot or vegetable bed and the cardboard will just decompose. (The plastic tray can be used again next year and the year after that …)

Other things to think about are labels: wooden or bamboo ones are available instead of plastic ones (but you need to make sure they are sustainably sourced). The Green Seed Company makes some out of recycled coffee cups! Gardening ties (e.g. for tying up your climbers) are also frequently made of plastic, so you could use regular string or biodegradable jute twine if you don’t need a permanent tie. You can also re-use bits of string that you find everywhere. I have been collecting odd pieces of string that I come across and keeping them in a tin. It’s amazing how they add up to a lot of garden ties after a while.

You can also re-purpose your household plastic products. You could use plastic food lids as saucers under plant pots, or make plastic drink bottles into mini greenhouses! (Just don’t forget to clean and recycle them when you’re done.)

There are also things to think about when you are shopping for plants. Take your own bag rather than taking a plastic bag from the shop, or use a box instead. Our local Homebase, which sells increasing amounts of gardening products, now has piles of cardboard boxes at the cash tills (a practice that I remember from supermarkets in my childhood).

So there’s a lot to think about! In short, to follow the old re-cycling mantra:

·        Reduce: Think before you buy plastic goods. Is there an alternative organic pot available for the plant you have chosen? Should you buy the tool with the plastic or the wooden handle? What are those gloves made of? Can you make your own pots to grow your seeds in?

·        Re-use: Get the most from the plastic pots that you already have, or give them to schools or allotments to use. Can you use those plastic compost bags for household waste? Or for growing potatoes in?

·        Recycle: Take plastic pots back to your garden centre and try to get them to accept them, or travel that extra distance to Nottcutts (or Dobbies if you live in the North).

·        Remember: Environmentally-friendly gardening is not just about being aware of plastic – it’s about sustainably sourced wood, peat-free compost, bee-friendly plants, careful water use, and much more, even ethical paving …

·        And … Relax! Enjoy your garden, knowing that you are not only creating a calming, beautiful space, but you are doing it without harming the world around you in the process.