Gardeners World live is the first garden show to offer plant buyers the option to take plants home plastic free.
The idea behind a POSIpot is that a customer can buy a plant in one, a recycled and compostable card sleeve, take it home and plant it exactly as it is.
POSIpots took a sample of some of the other single use free processes, like their compost bag for life scheme. On the opening morning with a degree of trepidation they waited to see if anyone would use them and what reaction they would get.
It didn’t take long for people to catch on… ‘what a brilliant idea’… ‘why don’t all garden centres do this? ’.. such positive responses and the plastic pots started to build up in the bins to the side of the POSIpotting bench.
With the exception of a few very large pots all the POSIpots fitted perfectly, the team worried that the process could be slow, but it wasn’t the case. By Saturday they had a big increase in pot swappers due to a shout on Gardeners World by Monty.
It was a really successful few days and best of all some of the 60 plant sellers on site got to see the process and understand that is not difficult. Some came and took their pots back for re-use, for the team to show and explain the behaviour change needed to growers was invaluable.
Over 2000 plastic pots were swapped, over 500 plastic bags and a huge number of labels. The plastics will be sorted into different plastic types and made into new pots.
The long-term aim is work with other garden shows and promote the idea that single use plastic doesn’t have to be used in home horticulture. It’s the case that Gardeners World had the vision to try, hopefully other shows will as well.