'Potty' plant pot recycling initiative aims to expand

Friday 24 June 2022

An initiative that has rescued thousands of plastic plant pots from the incinerator is aiming to expand with a facility in each of the island’s parishes.

Potty Eco Pots was launched by environment enthusiasts Louise Carson and Kalina Le Marquand in April 2021.

The environmental initiative enables people to drop old plant pots that they no longer need at a collection point where others can pick them up to use, all free of charge.

Pictured: Kalina collecting pots at La Collette Household Reuse and Recycling Centre.

The pair work alongside the La Collette Household Reuse and Recycling Centre to save upwards of 6,000 pots a month from the incinerator.

Schools and community projects use their service, as well as members of the public who want to try their hand at gardening.

Pictured: The Potty Eco Pots initiative was featured in this month's edition of Gardeners' World.

Announcing their hopes to expand, the Potty Eco Pots team said: “We are looking to provide a facility in each parish to stop the need for any pots to be destroyed.”

These pots will be freely available to “support our community to be able to grow whatever they like without the need to purchase pots”.

Pictured: The team regularly run stalls at various places around the island.

They added: “We are not only cutting down on the number of pots finding their way to the waste stream but, are stopping so many pots from being imported unnecessarily. 

“So many pots are already available as a by-product of the number of plants being brought into the island.

“We could focus on growing our own plants from native seeds and our own food from saved seeds, and then we could cut down on the number of plants being imported too.”

Pictured: There is even a waiting list for larger-sized pots.

Potty Eco Pots currently has permission from St. Clement, St. John and Trinity Parish Halls as locations for boxes, and hope to be able to find a location in each of the island's remaining parishes.

They also recently achieved their crowdfunding target of £300 to have a large plant pot reuse collection and drop-off unit built by Acorn at Les Creux.

Pictured: Supporters have raised £300, which will be used to install a plant pot collection unit at Les Creux to serve the west of the island.

The group is keen to sprout in other parts of the island as soon as possible, and are therefore looking for ideas for other locations that could be used as drop-off and collection points or as storage spaces.

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!"