43,000 plant pots saved from incinerator

Tuesday 03 August 2021

More than 43,000 plant pots have been rescued from Jersey's incinerator thanks to a green-fingered duo - and now their efforts will be helping disadvantaged people grow food in Eastern Europe.

‘Potty Eco Pots’ was set up in early April by keen recycler Louise Carson and gardening enthusiast Kalina Le Marquand, after the latter received an “unbelievable amount of pots” following an appeal.

With the help of Louise’s husband, volunteers and the team La Collette Household Reuse and Recycling Centre, the pair decided to keep collecting pots following the appeal and rescued close to 6,000 pots in a month.

In just 18 weeks, the group has now rescued 43,000 pots, which have been collected by islanders from Louise and Kalina’s homes, as well as from the collection point at SCOOP. The group has also delivered large numbers of pots to local organisations, including Samares Manor and the Parish of St. Helier, as well as schools.

Pictured: The Eco Potty Pots collection point at SCOOP.

Local charity Mustard Seed collected around 2,000 pots, while Louise Bamber, who runs a gardening group on Facebook and with whom Kalina and Louise have partnered up, helped source seeds for vegetables and edible products suitable for the climate in Eastern Europe.

“The pots will be going to Eastern Europe where people cannot afford them,” Louise explained.

“They will be able to grow food from pots that we have saved from the incinerator, which is mind-blowing.”

The rescued pots have also enabled schools to teach their pupils about growing and gardening. “They have more resources so they can do more growing-based initiatives,” Kalina said.

Meanwhile, dozens of islanders have been trying their hand at gardening for the first time or tried out new crops with the help of the second-hand pots.

“People are constantly saying that they are planting more because they have pots,” Louise said.

“For some, the pots were prohibitively expensive, so they have not grown as much. Now, because they don’t have to spend that significant portion of money, they give it a bash and grow something different. In a little way, we are making Jersey more green!”

With the donations islanders have been making when collecting pots, ‘Eco Potty Pots’ was able to provide 720 trees to Jersey College for Girls for the creation of a woodland on the school site.

Each girl will get to plant their own tree in the autumn and watch it grow throughout their time at the school. The teacher who helped organised the initiative has also asked for 1,000 trees to create their own private woodland at home. 

Another seven or eight projects will also benefit from the work Kalina does through ‘Halfwild Jersey’ - an initiative she launched to help grow native trees.

“It’s crazy how lots of people have been doing different stuff and joining up has changed the scope of what we can do,” Louise said.

“I sit at home and tell people what to collect and organise the volunteers. My husband does all the lifting and shifting, and we have a really good group of volunteers.

“It’s amazing how people are so willing to just join in! It’s just ballooning and growing!”

The group, which recently started collecting bamboo from the green waste, were full of praise for the team at the Recycling Centre.

“They really care about recycling,” Louise said. “If we get rid of all the pots, they start giving us things that can be repurposed as pots. They have really welcomed us with open arms.”

The group is now keen to sprout in other parts of the island, and is looking for a collection point in the east and a storage space where they can keep tree seedlings.

While that search continues, Kalina said the team "will find a way of coping", adding: "I would rather have a house full of pots than them being burned!"