What options are available when you want to select an ecologically friendly plant pot?

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The typical black plant pot is the most commonly used plant pot. These pots are often made of ‘virgin plastic’ ( i.e. new plastic made from fossil fuels). They are, however, not recyclable because of the colouring agent used in their production process: carbon black. Carbon black cannot be detected in a recycling plant. The pot will therefore be disposed of as residual waste, and subsequently incinerated.

An alternative to this type of pot is one that is not black. How about a terracotta-coloured pot? The advantage to a pot like this is that it is recyclable thanks to its colour, which contains no carbon black and can therefore be detected in a recycling plant. It is therefore a more ecologically responsible alternative to the aforementioned black pot.

So, it takes only one easy step to opt for a recyclable pot. However, it doesn’t stop at recyclability. The Earth’s supply of fossil fuels is not infinite. There are enough alternatives to pots made of virgin plastic. You could choose a pot made from partially recycled material, or even made entirely from recycled material. The disadvantage is that these pots look exactly the same as the virgin plastic plant pots. Therefore, the pot will need a printed label if you want to show that it is made from recycled material. However, a printed pot has a bigger environmental impact than an unprinted one.

Would you prefer a pot that does not contain any fossil fuels whatsoever? There are also plastic pots made from biobased materials (i.e. natural raw materials). These pots have the same qualities as plastic ones, but are not made from fossil fuels. Please note that these pots must be recyclable. Some biobased plant pots are even biodegradable, meaning that they decompose naturally. Unfortunately, you don’t see these pots all that often in practice, even with a quality mark. At present, they cannot be composted because this process takes too long in industrial composting plants. As a result, they now end up in residual waste flows, where they are incinerated.

Plastic currently has a very poor image. Plant pots made from recycled or biobased material still have the same look and feel as those made from virgin plastic. Also, the pots do not decompose when they end up in nature. Would you prefer a more ecological alternative? Then you can opt for pots made from paper pulp, and refrain from using fossil fuels as raw materials. Check to see if the paper has an FSC label so that you can be sure that the wood it was made from was harvested according to sustainable practices. The advantage to these pots is that if they end up in nature – provided they have not been coated – they will disintegrate all by themselves. The disadvantage, however, is that if these pots get too wet they will fall apart. Nor can they be recycled. This is because they are often too wet and too contaminated with soil.

The overview was compiled to give you information about the most commonly used plant pots, and to shed light on their advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, there is no plain answer as to which is the most sustainable choice. It is important to give some thought to what you consider an important aspect of sustainability. You can also take the market into consideration when making your decision: where will the pot end up? How will the pot probably be disposed of? Perhaps it is important to you that no fossil fuels were used to produce the pot, or perhaps you attach greater value to the extent to which it can be recycled.

You could also check with your packaging supplier to see if a carbon footprint calculation was drawn up for the various pots you are considering. A low carbon footprint could also constitute a reason to opt for a particular pot.