As part of our Soroptimists on Sustainability (SOS) project, three members visited Edible Culture, who are leading the way in sustainable horticulture, on 11th June.
The company grows their plants in 3″ black plastic pots but no longer sell the plants on to customers in these pots. Instead they transfer the plants to recyclable cardboard pots for sale and keep the plastic pots to reuse. Win win. The plastic pots are no longer single use, the nursery does not have to buy new ones, and the customer does not have the problem of disposing of plastic pots. When the pots are too old to reuse, the nursery hands them over to the school and the students shred them. They are then recycled into fibres to provide the material fed into 3D printers. The nursery also sells its compost to customers in returnable bags. Brilliant. Hopefully the big garden centre chains will start to follow this example.
As Plastic Free Champions, Edible Culture were instrumental in Faversham gaining Plastic Free Town status.