In our last newsletter we asked our Coventry based Blue Daisy clients to take part in a plant pot amnesty.  Thank you to all who took part – it is very much appreciated!  We now have a new selection of plant pots to use when potting up and growing on new seedlings and cuttings and if we can recycle pots it means that we can also keep the price down even further when we sell the plants on.

Apart from keeping plant prices down for you, there is also a bigger, very real reason why we asked you to do this – it's estimated that there are 500 million plant pots introduced into circulation every year, and as yet, there is still no real way of dealing with them once they've been emptied. 

According to a recent Which Gardening survey the average gardener has around 39 empty plant pots knocking around their garden.  And while we all have great intentions of reusing them, many of us actually don't.  And putting them into your recycling bin isn't the best option either since many domestic recycling schemes don't have the facilities to deal with the specific plastic (polypropylene) used in the manufacture of most plant pots – the result being that they often can end up in landfill.  We asked Coventry City Council and they don't have the facilities but did say they are always looking to expand what they recycle in the future.

This is an enormous issue and there are many facets to it.  Finding alternative and sustainable plant pot materials, for instance, is just as important as being able to deal effectively with existing pots but as an industry that is all about the environment we think, here at Blue Daisy, that it's time that we all try to take responsibility for all aspects of our work.

Even though we know we can always do more we're trying to do our bit so,

• If we plant plants for you we will take the plant pots away with us and reuse them unless you specifically ask us to leave them for you.
• If you are a Blue Daisy gardening client and you have spare pots lurking behind the shed (or anywhere else!) please let us know and we will arrange for your gardener to take them away. (It would be appreciated if you would give them a bit of a clean up first though!)
• We will reuse pots as much as we can so if you see us selling plants and all of our pots are different sizes please don't hold it against us!!  There is a very good reason for it!