Photo Credit: The Amanda (flickr)
The Missouri Botanical Gardens operates the most extensive public garden recycling program in the nation. The Plastic Pot Recycling program has saved over 1 million pounds of plastic garden pots, cell packs and trays from landfills.
You can drop off your garden plastics for recycling at the Botanical Garden’s Monsanto Center or at one of the many satellite locations at retail garden centers.
You will need to sort your plastic gardening containers into cell packs, pots and trays. All soil, rocks, metal hangers, rings or non-plastic parts should be removed.
The Garden then grinds up the plastic into chips and sells it to manufactures.
One of the items that is produced from the chips is recycled lumber. These 4″ and 8″ black plastic logs are perfect for raised garden beds and retaining walls. The plastic lumber is water and pest resistant and can be cut and drilled similar to wooden lumber. They outlast traditional wooden railroad ties which have a life span of only 10-15 years.
Photo Credits: Pots to Planks
Plastic Items Accepted:
Cell packs
Hanging baskets
Trays
Pots of all sizes
Plastic Items Not Accepted:
No household plastic
No food plastic
No clay pots
No soil
No metal hangers
No plastic bags
Collection Centers:
MAIN COLLECTION CENTER:
Open April through October
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Missouri Botanical Garden
Monsanto Center
4500 Shaw Boulevard
St. Louis MO 63110
(314) 577-9441
SATELLITE COLLECTION CENTERS:
The list of satellite locations has not been posted yet. As soon as they are, I will update this list.
2012 Satellite Collection Locations:
- Boxwood Farms
- Crabapple Cove Nursery
- Garden Heights Nursery
- Greenscape Gardens
- Hartke Nursery
- Hillerman’s Nursery and Florist
- Rolling Ridge Garden Center
- Sherwood’s Forest Nursery and Garden Center
- Schmittel’s Nursery
- Summer Winds Nursery
- Thies Farm and Greenhouse
- University Gardens
- Waldbert & Sons Garden Center
