Managing Spring Gardening Waste
Plastic bags used for soil, mulch, etc.: Please throw these in the trash. These bags are too dirty to recycle at a retailer.
Plastic flower pots: Since most flower pots are made from a variety of plastic resins and are often dark colors, we say to put them in the trash.
The reason it is hard to recycle dark colored plastic is because recycling facilities sort plastics by bouncing a beam of light off them. Since black plastic absorbs light, it can't be sorted and goes straight through the system and off to landfill or incineration.
Most current (and past) black plastic use carbon to make the black, which absorbs the beam so the reader can’t identify the resin. The same is true for really dark colors in general (dark grays and sometimes navy).
But what about white pots, you ask? They also go in the trash. There is such a wide variety of sizes and resin types with pots that they likely will NOT be recycled. Please find a way to reuse them, or put them in the trash.
How to avoid buying new plastic pots and plants
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Reuse pots at a plant swap like Historic Newton's annual event at the Durant-Kenrick house, June 10.
Click here to learn more about this free event!
- Save your old pots and use them for new plants.
- Share pots and plants with friends and neighbors or online at Nextdoor, Facebook, or Craigslist.
- Grow plants from seed.
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