At Shoot we believe in keeping garden waste at a minimum. Minimise the number of plants you kill by following our 'Right Plant Right Place' guidance, compost any green waste and reuse and recycle plastic pots.
Plastic Plant Pot Facts
Half a billion plant pots are in circulation in the UK each year and in the US, 95% are not recycled according to the Association of Professional Landscape Designers.
Recycling charity RECOUP has found that only 10% of councils currently collect plant pots as part of their household kerbside collections and according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), many still reject plastic flower pots, in part because they may contain soil and other organics that contaminate the loads.
Moreover, plant pots are still often made from a wide range of plastics, including the ubiquitous black plastic, which is rejected at the kerbside and by most re-processors because standard sorting machines struggle to detect the carbon pigment used to colour it. Re-use is always the best option.
Most gardeners have a stack of plant pots behind the greenhouse or in the shed and most will reuse pots from year to year but occasionally, everyone needs to dispose of spare pots:
Made from a range of materials such as coir, wood chips, rice husks, miscanthus or seaweed, biodegradable pots are becoming increasingly popular, especially with organic gardeners. There are two types: ones that last a few months and can be planted straight into the soil, where they gradually break down and add humus to the soil; and more rigid ones made from plant materials such as rice husks and latex which last up to three years and can be put on your home compost heap to degrade.
Following some feedback from our members on the topic, we conducted a Twitter poll and found 96% of our community believe that local authorities should recycle plant pots. We also had a flurry of comments on our Instagram and Facebook with suggestions of how to keep spare pots in use and also details of who will recycle broken pots.
Please note that information shown below has come from social media sources. Some organisations may not be operating normally due to COVID-19.
School gardening clubs
Local allotment societies
Environment Education Teams at local councils often need plant pots
Freecycle is a free online forum that allows you to offer your plant pots locally. Anyone interested contacts you via email and then comes round at an agreed time to pick them up directly from your home.
B&Q offer a community re-use scheme that includes plant pots (local organisations can sign up to access).
Nurseries that recycle plastic pots
Dobbies Garden Centres has a free plastic plant pot and tray return service. Customers can drop off plastic pots and trays at any stores and they'll make sure they don't end up in landfill. They can take all shapes, sizes and colours, as long as they're plastic and not polystyrene, they just need a quick wash first.
Scotsdales,Shelford.
DB Nurseries, Dukinfield Road, Hyde Cheshire
Haskins Garden Centres, Ferndown
Hedging Plants Direct, Colchester
Grenville Nurseries, Chelmsford
Haskins Garden Centres, West End, Southampton
Haskins Garden Centres, Farnham
Haskins Garden Centres, Angmering
Haskins Garden Centres, Copthorne
Webbs of Wychbold, Worcestershire -
Johnsons of Whixley, York
The Arium, Leeds
New Hopetoun Gardens, Edinburgh
Solstice Nurseries, Aberdeen
Can anyone advise any organisations who need plant pots? School, colleges?
USA RECYCLING
Lowe’s Home and Garden
Home Depot
Hillside Nursery, Chatfield