As we look at how to further reduce the plastic we use, we can't help but notice how much we use in the garden.
We are growing forestry trees — high value timber species — and natives we'll use to restore an ephemeral wetland. Little trees are even taking over the vegetable beds! In fact, that's a good way to reduce the amount of plastic pots we use: grow on the trees in the ground instead.
My partner makes seed raising "flats" (boxes) out of locally milled macrocarpa from MacBlack Timber and if I store them properly they'll last us for many years. We then prick out to root trainers and once more into special one-litre pots, all plastic.
Recently I put a call out via Sustainable Whanganui's email list and Facebook page, offering to reuse root trainers and some multi-cell planting trays.
I figured lots of people had spent lockdown clearing out the shed and garage. It's a permaculture maxim that waste is a resource in the wrong place. We are willing to reuse root trainers or the thicker plastic multi-cell trays because at our scale, it's possible to sterilise them despite the hassle.
