Recycling flower pots – Cleeve Nursery and Garden Centre , Cleeve, Bristol

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin

The plastic flower pot recycling scheme was set up in 2010 and has been a huge success with the most recent collection having to be made by a 40 tonne truck!

The plasric flower pots are returned to a West Midlands pot manufacturer to be turned into fresh pots again. Aeroplas, one of the major black plastic flower pot manufacturers, recycle plastic pots of every hue back into new black flower pots. These are then used again by growers such as Cleeve Nursery.

Plant trays can also be recycled by us but, since they are made of a different plastic, we ask that you seperate them from the pots.

see our < rel="nofollow" a href="http://www.cleevenursery.co.uk/page.php?id=126" target=blank>website

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Converting waste plastic into low sulphur content crude oil

Posted on July 2, 2011 by admin

Houston, Texas based Greenstar Recycling has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Cleveland, Ohio based Vadxx Energy LLC to form a joint venture that will convert recovered plastic into synthetic crude oil.

Through this JV, Greenstar and Vadxx – which specialises in technology for the recovery and reprocessing of petroleum based products – will work together to provide a domestic fuel, and repurposing hard to recycle, recovered plastic products.

Using proprietary processes, Vadxx says that it can manufacture synthetic crude oil and natural gas by using petroleum based plastics as a feedstock in a process called thermal depolymerization.

Greenstar says that it chose to partner with Vadxx in its plastics to energy venture because of the process’s potential to scale to commercial size and capacity based on the continuous feed process, flexible design and expandable system.

“Plastics are made from oil, and Vadxx has figured out how to create the lowest sulphur content crude oil in the world, from a commodity that might otherwise occupy space in landfills,” stated Jim Garrett Vadxx CEO.

“This JV will help us better serve our municipal customers by providing a more consistent market value for their plastics that are otherwise largely unmarketable. It will increase recovery rates by pulling more plastics out of landfills,” added Matt Delnick, Greenstar CEO.

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PVC Industry Raises Plastic Recycling Targets

Posted on June 26, 2011 by admin

The European Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry has launched VinylPlus, a voluntary commitment which it hopes will enhance the sustainable production and use of PVC by 2020.

The initiative follows the success of the Vinyl 2010 programme which claims to have revolutionised the PVC value chain in Europe between 2000-2010 through advances in waste management, stakeholder engagement and responsible use of additives.

Among the most significant achievements of Vinyl 2010 is the establishment of an infrastructure for the collection and recycling of PVC in Europe. According to Vinyl 2010, prior to the year 2000 PVC had been dismissed by many as an unrecyclable material, destined for landfill and there were virtually no recycling systems in place.

In 2005 Vinyl 2010, set up the Recovinyl network that now supports more than 150 recycling companies across Europe, recycling over 260,000 tonnes of post-consumer waste PVC per year.

However, under the new VinylPlus initiative the organisation says that it is aiming for a quantum leap in recycling rates, technological innovation and stakeholder engagement by 2020.

In creating the new VinylPlus programme, the industry has chosen to work in an open process of extensive stakeholder dialogue, involving industry, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), regulators, public officials and users of PVC. It has also benefitted from the guidance of The Natural Step (TNS), an international a sustainable research NGO.

VinylPlus says that it has set challenging sustainability targets that puts more focus on innovation, and places even greater emphasis on stakeholder dialogue to ensure that the efforts of the industry translate into concrete and far reaching benefits for society as a whole.

One of the key objectives of the initiative is to move towards greater “controlled-loop management” of PVC. This includes efficient use and control of all materials throughout their life cycle. The scheme has also set a target of recycling 800,000 tonnes of PVC annually by 2020.

As innovation is one of the key working principles of the new commitment, VinylPlus says that it will aim to ensure that ‘innovative recycling technologies’ account for 100,000 tonnes per year of the overall recycling target for 2020.

Furthermore, with the support of the upstream industry, VinylPlus says that it will investigate solutions for difficult to recycle PVC waste streams, such as composites and contaminated or difficult to sort waste. The organisation plans to encourage ideas and investments in new technology as well as the further development of emerging recycling solutions.

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Canada leads the way to recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays

Posted on June 19, 2011 by admin

Milton, Ontario —June 16, 2011—Canadian gardeners have more options when it comes to responsibly disposing of garden plastic plant flower pots and seed trays following a humble start to the first National Plastics Recycling Event, when just six garden centres collected more than 53,000 pounds of plastic, 40 Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA) members have eagerly pledged their support to the 2011 cause.

Collecting garden plastics for reuse isn’t as easy as it seems, say nurseryfolk. Customers often bring an assortment of flowerpots back to nurseries, hoping that they can be replanted. Donations are usually declined because sanitized containers are key to preventing the spread of serious plant pests and disease, but the proper sterilization of used pots can be a pricey and complicated endeavour. Processors who recycle soil-laden pots are few. Luckily, the national initiative has partnered the horticulture industry with committed stewardship organization, CleanFARMS, and with suppliers like Myers Lawn & Garden Group, who are making strides in overcoming the problem. Local recyclers West Coast Plastics Recycling (BC) and Plastix Canada (Ontario) have gone out of their way to help too.

Phoenix Perennials & Specialty Plants is a mail order and retail nursery located in Richmond, British Columbia. Proprietor, Gary Lewis, joined the program last week and was happy to make the extra effort; “The nursery industry is the ‘original green industry’. We grow the plants and educate the public about how to add beauty to and improve the environments of our cities and towns. It’s important that we continue this leadership by working to reduce the ecological footprint of our industry by encouraging the recycling of the plastic pots, flats and other materials we require to grow and sell our plants. The National Plastics Recycling Event is a visionary and important program that provides a means for nurseries across the country to offer a recycling service to our customers. Our customers are impressed that we are showing environmental responsibility. They are overjoyed to get rid of their plastic pots without having to throw them out, and we get to do the right thing as a business.”

Gardeners are encouraged to bring clean, dry garden plastics to one of the garden centre ‘depots’ during National Plastics Recycling Event from June 25 to July 4. To find a participating garden centre near you, visit www.canadanursery.com and click on “National Plastics Recycling Event.”

The following garden retailers and recycling partners will accept recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays during the National Plastics Recycling Event from June 24 to July 5.

recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays in B.C.

Cannor Nursery, Abbotsford

Cannor Nursery, Parksville

David Hunter Garden Centers, Surrey

Minter Country Garden Store, Chilliwack

Northwest Landscape Supply Ltd., Burnaby

Phoenix Perennials & Specialty Plants, Richmond

Port Kells Nursery, Surrey

recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays in Saskatchewan

Cornell Design & Landscaping, Moose Jaw

recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays in Ontario

Alcock Nurseries Ltd., Campbellcroft

Art’s Landscaping Nursery & Garden Centre, Goderich

Bala Garden Centre, Bala

Black Forest Garden Centre, Aurora

Bradford Greenhouses Garden Gallery, Barrie

Bradford Greenhouses Garden Gallery, Bradford

Carp Garden Centre, Ashton

Cudmore’s Garden Centre Inc., Oakville

Green Thumb Garden Centre, Nepean

Greenbelt Farm, Mitchell

Humber Nurseries Landscaping Inc., Brampton

Kamstra Landscaping & Garden Supplies, Oshawa

Make it Green Garden Centre, Stittsville

Mavis Garden Supplies, Mississauga

Native Plant Source, Kitchener

Plant World, Etobicoke

Tarantino Nursery Ltd., Vaughan

Taylor Nursery, Milton

Valleyview Gardens, Scarborough

Van Dongen’s Garden Centre, Hornby

Verbeeks Farm and Garden Centre Inc., Clinton

Walter’s Greenhouses & Garden Centre, Paris

Waterloo Flowers, Waterloo

recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays in New Brunswick

Scott’s Nursery Ltd., Lincoln

recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays in Nova Scotia

Atlantic Gardens, Bedford

Atlantic Gardens, Sackville

Lakeland Plant World, Dartmouth

recycling plastic plant flower pots and seed trays in Newfoundland

O’Neill’s Gardenland, Spaniard’s Bay

Renata Triveri, Retail Priorities Manager

Canadian Nursery Landscape Association

Tel. 1.888.446.3499 ext 8730

renata@canadanursery.com

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Flower pots mean, Plastic is fantastic !

Posted on April 4, 2011 by admin


Ingenious environmental horticulture companies have been researching and developing alternatives to plastic plant pots, plant packs and seed trays over recent years which has seen results manifested in the many garden centres now able to offer vegetable and flower plants in a variety of biodegradable containers.

Consider plants like perennials, shrubs and trees, that live longer in their nursery pots, growers and garden retailers are looking for and testing the durability of containers made from coconut husk, rice hull, paper-fibre, cow manure ‘paper’, and even chicken feathers. However, until clear winners arise that will stand up to sun, rain, watering, machine and human handling, and shipping, plastic plant pots and seedling trays remain the most-used option.

The key consideration to alternative pots made to hold trees for several years before they get transplanted into your garden, is they are made from different plastics than those that only take a season or two. Different plants can have very different growing requirements, and the containers used in horticulture are designed to fit these needs. The multitude of plastics with various recycling codes, and the fact it is difficult to remove all the soil from plastic plant pots means most municipal / local council recycling bin programs do not include them.

So there you have it…..flower pots mean Plastic is fantastic !

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Flower pots made with feathers

Posted on March 17, 2011 by admin

Making compostable flowerpots from bioresin plastic and feathers
Garden and Nursery pots are being manufactured from polyolefins blended with keratin resin made from chicken feathers ready for the gardening season in spring 2011

Announced by K. Marc Teffeau, research director at the Horticultural Research Institute, the research affiliate of the Washington-based American Nursery & Landscape Association. “HRI is in the process of incorporating a for-profit [limited liability company] to handle the licensing of the formulations to toll compounders. We are not in the pot business. We are the developers and licensors of the keratin-based resin.”

In partnership with the Department of Agriculture, HRI has been developing formulations for keratin resins made from chicken feathers and manufacturing prototype biodegradable nursery containers and pots since 2006 at the USDA lab in Beltsville.

HRI and USDA are also working with toll compounder, processor and extruder Adell Plastics Inc. in Baltimore; four nursery pot manufacturers in Pennsylvania; and a poultry processor in Delaware.

“We are trying to do the marriage of the material with the market,” said Teffeau. “Everyone is after the Holy Grail — a product that is 100 percent biodegradable or one you can plant in the ground and have it decompose.”

Feathers, composed predominately of the natural biopolymer keratin protein, represent a potentially large, continuously renewable resource. Roughly 3 billion pounds of chicken feathers are generated annually in the U.S. from roughly 9 billion farm-raised broiler chickens.

The majority of chicken feathers today, roughly 80 percent, are sent to landfills, with the rest used for feather meal, an animal feed product, or sent to landfills.

But ground into powder and turned into resin, it represents a potential market of 6 billion to 9 billion pounds — given that the initial keratin/polyolefin pellet mixtures for the pots will be one-third to one-half keratin and the remainder polyolefin.

“We want to bring a new chemistry to the market,” Teffeau said. “The end products will not only help solve the environmental problem of creating biodegradable plastics, but they will also provide a cost-effective commercial use for feathers.

“But we know that it has to be cost-competitive and that the performance of the polymer and the process has to be similar to what companies are already doing,” he said.

The researchers have developed and looked at more than 50 formulations in their efforts to bring their first resins to market, and have developed pots that degrade within one-to-five years.

“We have successfully developed formulations for injection molding,” said Teffeau. The first products will be molded from a mix of polyolefin and keratin with the long-term goal being a pot made completely from keratin in chicken feathers, he said.

He said HRI is also developing blow molding formulations, as many nursery pots are blow molded. “Blow molded pots use more expensive resins, but use less of the resins,” Teffeau said. “Injection molded pots are stronger, but weigh more.”

The feathers are ground into a powder, and then made into a resin. “Because of the different weight of the feathers, we have had to use different types of feeders to get the flow right,” said Masud Huda, a polymer chemist and research associate with HRI.

Glycerin also is used in some of the patented formulations as a processing aid and to bind the material. In addition, USDA and HRI are experimenting with adding poultry manure so that the flowers get nutrient from the pot itself.

“As we prove out additional formulations, we will look at adding other agricultural waste products [to] move toward a 100 percent biodegradable and ‘plantable’ pot. The waste will add more nutrients to the soil,” Teffeau said.

To speed commercialization, HRI and USDA are working with a poultry processor to design a prototype plant to efficiently produce the resin from the chicken feathers. Teffeau said the best working economic model is co-locating the pelletizing plant at the poultry firm’s location — “because the more you handle the material, the higher the price,” said Teffeau.

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All about EPS, expanded polystyrene foam plant trays and recycling

Posted on August 21, 2010 by admin

How expanded polystyrene EPS foam trays are used and recycledExpanded polystyrene (EPS) is derived from petroleum and natural gas by-products producing a closed cell of lightweight, rigid, foam plastic, composed of carbon and hydrogen molecules,  from a mixture of about 90-95% polystyrene and 5-10% gaseous blowing agent, most commonly pentane. The solid plastic is expanded using steam.

EPS is used for a vast number of applications which includes protective packaging for consumer electronic products, white goods, construction, furniture and horticultural plant trays.

It is the most  cost effective one trip method of cushioning fragile products which includes plants from nursery growers and garden centres.
It has many virtues including excellent thermal insulation properties and is 100% recyclable, however the product is 98% air meaning that it has great volume and very little weight !

In the UK the largest manufacturer of this product is SCA 
SCA UK Technical Centre & Regional Office
Cornhill Close
Lodge Farm Industrial Estate
Northampton
NN5 7UB
Telephone 01604 596800   web site sca product ranges

As an example of the diverse range of products made from EPS see
sca online  for a range of new and original concepts moulded from colourful, lightweight recyclable EPS materials made in the UK.

EPS is theoretically, fully recyclable,  but limited by the opportunities to collect the material, via recycling facilities in the UK, with very few recycling points, however, the EPS  Group is a member-group of the British Plastics Federation, and was formed in January 2009, following a merger of the BPF EPS Construction Group and the BPF EPS Packaging Group who have recycled a huge amount of EPS.

The EPS Group represents 80% of the expandable polystyrene manufacturing industry in the UK and works to provide authoritative, reliable information to companies and individuals seeking independent facts about the performance of the material.

In 2009, 5031 tonnes of EPS (expanded polystyrene) packaging were recycled in the UK.  This is approximately 33% of the EPS packaging exceeding the UK government recycling target for all plastics of 25.5% by 2010.   It was reported that in in 2006,  29.3% of EPS produced in the UK was recycled or recovered.

For more information about recycling EPS see :  A list of EPS recyclers

Many businesses in the UK have set up recycling schemes for their used EPS.  Some have their material collected un-compacted; this is recycled into insulation board for use in construction.
Others invest in compacting machinery which reduces the size of their EPS by between 40-95%. The material is then more cost effective for transport and can be sold to recyclers.
This compacted material can be transformed into recycled polystyrene pellets which may be used to manufacture new products.
Some of the members of the EPS Packaging Group have set up consumer recycling points on their sites so that local people and small businesses can recycle their used polystyrene.  This material is ground down and put back into new packaging.
See Eps.co.uk for more information.

Products made from recycled EPS: Garden furniture made from recycled plastic will not rot and needs only a wash !

Recycled polystyrene can be converted into products that look and act like wood and can be sawn, nailed or screwed, just like wood.
Horticultural plant pots and trays, office stationery products and promotional gift-ware goods, tongue & groove panels for all types of buildings and structures,  replacement hardwood decking, door & window frames, garden furniture, tables, chairs, benches, fencing, planters, shop fittings,
DVD & CD cases, picture frames, coat hangers, dog kennels, walkways, construction insulation, and a host of construction civil engineering applications.

Plastic fence panels last much longer a look beeter than wood larch lap panels

There are a number of companies now specialising in these innovative recycled plastic products: 

Styrowood Ltd
199 Wall Hill Road
Coventry
CV5 9EL
t: 07768 798019  website Styrowood.com

 STYROWOOD Fencing is made from extruded polystyrene, which will not rot, warp, twist or discolour.
STYROWOOD is produced from 100% recycled material such as packaging, drinking cups, coat hangers and similar non-biodegradable products, no waste is generated during its manufacture. Any off cuts produced during installation can be collected and recycled to produce new STYROWOOD. The product is therefore environmentally neutral.
STYROWOOD is ideal for outdoor use, as it is waterproof, and should the product become immersed in water (i.e. due to flooding) there will be no adverse effect.
Graffiti can be easily removed by using a proprietary brand of cleaner (e.g. CIF).

Goplastic specialises in the supply and distribution of Govaplast recycled plastic street furniture and profiles. Our recycled plastic street furniture is made from 100% recycled plastic Polypropylene & Polyethylene, manufactured by Govaerts Recycling N.V. who have been leading the field in recycled plastic products for over 40 years. 
Goplastic web site

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Iver, Bucks recycled plastic plant pots and seed trays

Posted on August 15, 2010 by admin

take your unwanted plastic plant pots to Flowerland in Iver for recyclingIver Flowerland is one of the largest garden centres in the UK, close to where the M4, M40 and M25 meet. There’s everything for your home and garden and much more, making a visit a great day out for the family. We grow all of our bedding plants here and many other plants. We have regular nursery tours. Enjoy fresh, home cooked food and drink at our Coffee Shop. We have one of the largest furniture displays in the country, and also offer a used plastic plant pot recycling service.

Iver Flowerland
Norwood Lane, Iver, Bucks – SL0 0EW 
     
Telephone : 01753 630909 
 
Fowerland Iver website

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Bourne End, Bucks recycling plastic flower pots and trays

Posted on August 15, 2010 by admin

Bring your unwanted plastic plant pots to Bourne End garden centre Flowerland’s plastic pot recycling project.

Bourne End Garden Centre
Hedsor Road, Bourne End, Bucks – SL8 5EE 
     
Telephone : 01628 523926 
 
Bourne End, flowerland website
  
 

Regular customers to Flowerland at Bourne End may of noticed the appearance of recycling collection points to the left of the main car park entrance. We are inviting all our customers to return to us all unwanted plastic plant pots. As you are aware plastic doesn’t degrade in landfill sites, thereby damaging the environment. At Flowerland we are committed to doing what we can to help reduce this impact. All plastic pots returned to Flowerland will now be forwarded to a plastics recycling depot. We are urging all our customers to support us with this project and help us maintain the environment for future generations.

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Belton, Grantham recycling of plastic plant pots and seed trays

Posted on August 15, 2010 by admin

Belton Garden Centre recycle your old plastic plant pots and traysBelton Garden Centre is now owned by the partners of Ruskington Garden Centre. Ruskington is an award winning centre that has been transformed over the last few years by Graham, Karen and Stephen Elkington.
Modernisation, customer satisfaction, and a wider range of gardening products will form their priorities at Belton, including the recycling of plastic plant pots and seed trays.
The work at Belton is now at the planning stage and will begin as soon as possible.

Opening Times
Monday to Saturday 9am til 5pm
Sunday 10.30am til 4.30pm

Belton, Grantham, Lincolnshire
NG32 2LN
Telephone 01476 563700 

belton garden centre website

Please refer to our main web site for further information
www.ruskingtongardencentre.co.uk

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