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Having sat back and looked at all the ‘evidence’ presented by the HTA under the guidance of the industry ‘charity’ RECOUP you start to recognise its interested parties like BIFFA, Coca Cola et al.. are all working ‘constructively’ to get us all to recycle plastic more and more.

The taupe pot will (of course) reverse massive over production of plastic, stop incineration, reduce the carbon load of reprocessing plastics and in a instant, stop climate collapse.. we will all merrily skip in to a bright new sunrise. Thankyou!

Lobby groups (or charities) sponsored by industry are basically tools to protect profit, the concept of producing less destructive products is as alien as say… getting one of RECOUP’s members to admit that their products contribute to the obesity epidemic. Ironically the sugar tax has proven to be toothless.

Government will gladly pass responsibility to business, who in turn will pass the true cost (both to our planet and our taxes) of plastic back to us mere mortals. Taupe is a con.

Reduce

Reuse

Re-purpose

and if you really have to, recycle… but be aware that dealing with plastics through incineration is 12 times less fuel-efficient than burning the original stock fuel?

Dear Sue – I have heard nothing back from RHS so I have cancelled my membership.

We are a small-scale nursery and garden shop based in Faversham, Kent. We have done shows with you, promoted your training services and been advocates of what you have done for some years including attending policy launches.

I don’t know if you viewed our piece on Gardeners’ World where we displayed some of our processes which allow us to basically stop the sale of single use plastic, a modern first in the UK. We run a peat free compost bag for life scheme, we have invented and made the POSIpot which stops the sale of a plastic pot at point of sale, we sell feeds and sprays in refills or brown bags.. we have done numerous radical steps that has seen our sales go through the roof, customers being incredibly positive and us taking full responsibility for the plastic in our business.. we have broken the plastic chain.

When we started this last year, we didn’t want to do this half-heartedly, we think that climate and nature collapse demands a radical and inconvenient approach. I say inconvenient approach deliberately; we firmly feel that the small extras efforts involved has had a huge positive with our business… We talk more with our customers; we work more with community.. an example is we don’t throw away surplus plants, we plant up community spaces.. we work with the school we are based to design garden waste recycling processes including ironically a black plastic recycling centre.

We firmly believe that our green model for garden centres and nurseries is the future, the UK nursery business is declining rapidly as your recent report described, very few young people are opening them. What can make UK nurseries community based, relevant and distinctive as compared to the massive import market from the EU and the big players like Crocus online and B&Q on the high street? Respectfully, I have to challenge the RHS to look at how they can rise above the greenwash like taupe pots or the fact that plants pour in from abroad when we should be growing them here, peat free, pesticide free and selling them plastic free.

I have contacted the RHS numerous times to gauge support for our business and share the positives.. I have faced nothing but negatives or not being responded to. I am considering handing back my membership which is a real shame and even if I don’t receive anything from this, I am going to visit nurseries and shout about what we are doing. It is the future…

Kind Regards

David Ware

a week of edible bliss…

Over the week of national garden week we will focused on supporting people to grow herbs, veg, fruit trees and hedgerow crops. We will have special display stations and sample beds to show you how to get the best from your edible haven!

We will be showing how to successfully prune trees with our very own tree whisperer Chris. Come in with problems and questions and we can help you.

Our big focus is plastics and growing sustainably, we can give tips on how you can reduce, reuse and if need be… recycle. We will be swapping seeds and even swapping plants.

Free Parking, Charity tea stall, toilets and undercover activities if it rains.

We will be open from 9 to 5 everyday.. why not come along.

This is the first time since we started our year zero approach I have been able to sit down and bosh out my reflection on our plastic free selling journey so far. We have just had Gardeners World come in and do some filming of our processes and for the first time actually run through our motives and methods with people we didn’t know! I feel galvanised for some reaction when its broadcast.

The guys doing the filming were brilliant and massively patient, Chris and I both felt very nervous about defining motive, it is obvious that worry plays a huge part in why we doing this, a worry about the impact horticulture has on the environment… and being honest people accusing us of greenwash.

Things that are working include the POSIpot sleeves which feel brilliant to pass on, the public reaction is so good and the process of decanting the plant in to the pot takes a fraction longer than when we use to sell plants with plastic pots. We have a healthy stack of pots for washing and reusing.

The compost bag for life scheme is working, bags are coming back to us for refilling, again its got a huge thumbs up from all that use it.

The scoop and save element are going well, people are getting cheaper feeds and seeds and we are making money to.. it all feels the right thing to do.

Things we need to sort are plant labeling within the nursery, we use to print around 7000 plastic labels a year but now we are having to group plant varieties together and when we sell a plant write up a wooden label. We are thinking of a customer self writing process by putting IKEA style pencils and wooden labels for customers to label plants up themselves.

Transferring our larger plants is proving tricky, we have hessian wrapping for soft fruit and fruit trees once they have rooted (should be with the next few weeks) but at the moment the potted on bare root stock we sell cant be de-potted.

We will find solutions and find benefits within the solution, decanting our plants allow us to examine root health before we sell.

Our waste sorting has really come on, we are separating plastics for ‘in house’ processing. I am really enjoying this element as our land fill waste is nearly zero. Cardboard is sorted and recycled and we are really pushing our suppliers not to pointlessly over pack elements we need.

A really big joy is our new electric van, its a Kangoo and the best driving experience I have ever had. Brilliant for playing music in!

In conclusion it has been a challenging process changing our practices, it seems to be working as our the customer feedback is really good and our we are growing the biggest range of plants we have ever attempted. We have a great new staff member as well and this is really helping us.

The cutting of waste and carbon is going to be the only way businesses are going to keep going.. make those changes sooner rather than later.