Everyone who replied was in favour of Cllr Bark’s suggestion.
The over-riding theme from them was that plastic pots are definitely not single-use plastic. They are used and re-used for years, “until they fall apart”.
People also used yoghurt/margarine/cream pots/plastic bottles – examples below:
- A lot of plastic-trays for supermarket fruit and veg are the same size, so the clear trays can be used on top of opaque ones as propagators.
- A cream pot becomes a ‘vase’ to hold cuttings before planting.
- Deep food containers can have drainage holes made and be used for seedlings.
- Pop bottles with the bottoms cut off can be pushed into large pots/open groun to enable water to get straight to the roots.
- Food containers can be used by children/grandchildren to scoop up soil and identify creepy crawlies.
- The lower third of a pop bottle can be painted by grandchildren, holes made, and planted up for Mothers’ Day.
- Larger pop bottles can be cut horizontally and used in open soil to keep slugs at bay.
Many people also use compost and fertiliser bags for other purposes: e.g. lining plastic boxes that tomatoes and mushroom get sold in to use as seed trays (see photo 1)and also shallow cardboard boxes, re-using them as containers for home-made compost, re-using them again and again to take woody waste to the recycling depot, lining wooden planters in the garden…etc., etc.,
The amount of plastic used in horticulture is a massive problem – could Groves get involved too and ask us to return pots to them to re-use? (2 suggestions)
Still too many single-use plastic bags used by some traders. Encourage use of paper ones instead.
A member from Chideock would like the villages surrounding Bridport to be involved too.
Several people have small plastic pots to spare. Members who were thinking they might have to buy some should contact us first to ask for “spares”.
(The initiative is particularly welcome at the moment because of all the plastic used during the Covid 19 crisis, e.g. more “click-and-collect” orders and of course most of the PPE used by hairdressers, therapists, etc.)