Missouri Botanical Garden Recovers 70,000 Pounds of Horticultural Plastic

The Missouri Botanical Garden has set a new record during 2006, collecting 70,000 pounds of material through its Plastic Pot Recycling Program.

The program has recovered more than half a million pounds of pots and trays for recycling since its inception in 1997.

The William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis leads the initiative to collect plastic gardening containers, polystyrene and polypropylene cell packs and trays for six weekends in May and June. Garden workers and 62 volunteers donated 480 hours to the 2006 effort, collecting nearly 700 pounds of plastic per hour during 102 operating hours, according to the garden.

Four local gardening centers and two municipal recycling centers also contributed to the project. Waldbart & Sons, For the Garden by Haefners, Summerwinds at Timber Creek, Schmittels Nursery, the city of Kirkwood Recycling Center and the city of St. Peters Recycling Center collected about 20,000 pounds of horticultural plastics.

Dr. Steven Cline, manager of the Kemper Center and Pot Recycling Program founder and manager, says, “We continue to see increased participation each year, which has inspired us to expand the program by acquiring new granulation machinery and developing a better way to handle the mix of plastic.” He adds, “We have also fond that off-site collections are extremely productive and feel that the future of this effort lies in this satellite collection approach.

The garden began a partnership with Environmental Recycling Inc. (ERI), St. Louis, in 2003 to recycle the material into black plastic lumber through the Pots to Planks program. In the last three years, the material was used to make more than 2,500 planks of plastic lumber for use as raised garden beds or composting bins, according to the garden.

The program changed direction in 2006, selling its regrind to makers of railroad ties and landscape timbers.

More information is available at www.mobot.org/hort/activ/plasticpots.shtml.