Don't make leftover plastic pots a landfill problem. Instead, encourage your local retailers and botanical gardens to recycle them. For example, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis is leading an effort to recycle used plastic plant containers donated by the public. The horticultural industry alone produces some 350 million pounds of plastic each year.
"It is important that we as an industry understand the immense amount of plastic we generate, and present a way for the consumer to reuse or recycle this material," says Steve Cline, manager of the Garden's Kemper Center for Home Gardening. The Plastic Pot Program has reused 15,000 pots and has recycled more than 104 tons of horticultural plastic, making raised beds and boardwalks from recycled plastic "lumber."
For more information, visit www.mobot.org/hort/activ/plasticpots.shtml.