Making Your Garden Greener with Recycled Plastics This season, many Americans will abandon their homes and offices and venture outside to enjoy one of the three most popular outdoor leisure activities in the United States - gardening. Gardening has become big business, with 68 million households spending an estimated $26 billion every year on gardening and related products. What many gardening enthusiasts do not realize is that many of products they use in their gardening and landscaping projects are now available made with recycled plastics.
In 1998, Americans recycled almost 1.45 billion pounds of plastic bottles, with a significant amount of this recycled plastic content making its way into landscaping and gardening products. Recycled plastics play a role in a variety of garden and landscaping accessories, including patio furniture made from milk jugs, terracotta-look flowerpots made from plastic pallet-wrap and garden and lawn edging made from detergent bottles.
In order to make consumers more aware of the many products made from recycled plastics, the American Plastics Council (APC) has put together an extensive database of garden and landscaping products made from recycled plastics. This database is a part of APC's Recycled Plastic Products Directory, which helps private and public sector buyers identify products made with or packaged in recycled plastic.
"People are amazed when they see what becomes of the plastics they recycle, and how useful these products are in the garden," explains Joyce Gagnon, nationally known garden and landscape design expert who specializes in recycled materials. "For instance, used plastic water bottles are being recycled into garden hoses, while plastic milk jugs and detergent bottles are being used in landscape timbers."
Recycled plastic landscape timbers can be used to create raised flowerbeds and intricate multi-level terrace gardens. Unlike treated lumber, recycled plastic lumber will not decay from contact with water and wet soil and does not have to be stained or treated. Recycled plastic lumber, often created from recycled milk and detergent bottles, as well as composite lumber made from a mixed percentage of recycled plastics and wood, is easy to custom cut and maintain, and is available at most large home-improvement stores.
Beautiful lawn furniture in traditional design, as well as innovative, leading edge designs are also made from recycled plastics. Benches and lawn furniture made from recycled plastic and composite lumber can withstand weight, damage from animals or insects and environmental impact better than outdoor furniture made of wood. And, in areas high in mold and mildew growth, just wash it off! To view some of the innovative designs, visit our Recycled Plastic Products Directory and click on web links to some of the furniture design firms.
In addition to purchasing recycled plastics products, you can also reuse many of the plastics products you come across everyday in your garden. You'd be surprised at the number of things you can accomplish with the plastics that are a part of your everyday life.
Gagnon offers two easy gardening tips that employ inventive and creative uses of plastics:
- Ever wonder what you can do with those extra polystyrene packing peanuts? Gagnon suggests reusing the polystyrene packing peanuts by mixing them with potting soil for the larger vessels in your urban or rooftop container gardens. The polystyrene peanuts create pore spaces for water and allow air to flow more readily into your plants, helping to maintain soil quality and optimum growing conditions. The peanuts can also lighten the weight of the container, making large vessels lighter when it's time to move.
- You can extend your planting season by creating a temporary "greenhouse" over your raised beds. Simply bend plastic piping over the beds and cover with clear plastic film at night. The plastic will help protect the plants, flowers and herbs from an unexpected frost. Be sure to remove these covers during the day to prevent the plants from drying up as heat builds from the sun's rays.
You don't have to have a "green thumb" to see that the many available garden and landscaping products created from recycled plastics can help you and your family get the most out of gardening and the outdoors.
Tips for a Greener Garden