The first step in reduction is to look for non-plastic options when you buy. By finding ways to reduce the amount of plastic we bring home and, then, reuse what we inevitably acquire there will be less recycling necessary and less waste from what isn’t processed. There are three R’s when it comes to reducing plastic waste, and the first two are actually the most important - reduce and reuse. You would probably be surprised at the laborious steps necessary to turn these items into a reusable material.Īs a thoughtful consumer, the time you take to sort the products you bring to a facility will keep costs down and encourage your local recycler to continue accepting these materials. I featured the recycling process of plastic nursery pots in an episode of my show Growing a Greener World ® and in a podcast episode. It’s a tedious process and one reason recycling programs are being reduced or becoming extinct. Someone in the facility must sort through materials by hand because different plastic materials can’t be processed together. Have you ever dropped off recycling and seen someone disregarding the sort requirements and just throwing everything in together? We all lead busy lives, but that carelessness adds significantly to the cost a facility invests in recycling the products they accept. Identifying the indicator number whenever possible is important because some recycling facilities require that you sort by number or won’t accept certain plastics identified by number. If it doesn’t include that mark, it’s probably not recyclable. At a minimum, a package should include the basic recycling logo. Even when a package is marked, you might need to really look carefully to find it. Not all polyethylene, polypropylene or other plastics are marked with a number. It’s difficult to mark some of these products with a recycle indicator, but if you find a recycling indicator of 6, it’s polystyrene. Polystyrene – This is most commonly used for seedling trays and lightweight, rigid packaging.Polypropylene – Usually marked with the recycling indicator 5.Low-density Polyethylene - Usually marked with the recycling label 4.High-density Polyethylene – Usually marked with the recycling label 2.When it comes to garden products, there are four types of plastic used most often: Become familiar with the meaning behind common recycling markers, like number references. For example, always look for the logo which indicates a plastic package is recyclable. So as you bring plastic products into your home and landscape, be a thoughtful consumer. When the value of plastics fall, many items - like plastic nursery pots - are rejected by recycling plants because they aren’t a cost-effective process. Like all things, there is a market for recycled products which rises and falls continually. That’s an important step, but the recycling industry is moving away from accepting some common plastic products. If you’re like me, you make efforts to recycle whenever possible. In short, plastic is a big problem in our environment. Sadly, it’s not uncommon that plastic products make their way out of the landfill and into our waterways, threatening wildlife populations. Most of these materials take hundreds of years to break down or never break down at all. There are a number of different chemical compositions of plastics used in our modern society. However, their negative impact will ripple across generations to come. Once out of sight in a landfill, plastics are quickly out of mind. Add that to all the other plastics brought into our household, and it’s easy to see how these materials make up over 26 million tons of our landfill waste in a single year. Tools, plant pots, bagged compost and mulch, fertilizer and treatment products - plastic is everywhere in the garden industry. More often than not, garden products - like so many items we buy - are encased in plastic. I’ve covered that in other blogs and podcasts. I’m not talking about synthetic chemicals. Yet, the products we purchase for our garden can also create negative unintended consequences. Not to mention, the many benefits of growing our own food. Plants and trees of all varieties help to offset greenhouse gases and produce cleaner air. Landscaping slows the movement of water to reduce runoff and erosion. Green spaces we plant and tend in urban areas create islands of habitat for beneficial creatures. Sustainable Plastic Use in the Garden and Landscape By Joe Lamp’l - Gardening Expert and Host of Growing a Greener World®Ī garden provides many benefits in our environment.
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