This year’s Earth Day theme is “Planet Versus Plastic”. One of our sustainability initiatives at Weston Nurseries is taking back used plastic nursery pots from our customers. We have partnered with East Jordan Plastics, a Michigan based manufacturer of plastic nursery pots. They are the only manufacturer who takes back used pots to turn them into new pots.

We have placed a black collection bin in all of our locations. We ask that you shake out all the dirt before you drop them into the bin. Bins are collected from all stores weekly on our scheduled transfer date and transported to Hopkinton where we sort by type and palletize for pick up.

Once we produce enough pallets to fill a tractor trailer, East Jordan picks up and brings them to their manufacturing operations where they put them through the process of breaking them down and remolding them into new plastic pots that we purchase back from them. East Jordan takes in thousands of tractor trailers of recycled pots each year and they have started to make an impact on the amount of virgin petroleum our industry uses. We are proud to be the first garden center company in the area to offer this program on such a large scale and we encourage you to bring us your used pots to help decrease our industry’s dependence on petroleum-based products.

Another of our small steps for a bigger impact is the fact we are no longer going to offer disposable plastic trunk liners after we use up the short supply we have on hand. This small step will prevent over 20,000 sheets of plastic from going into landfills each year. We now offer a reusable trunk liner for $2.99 that is the same size as the previous disposable liner.

To learn more about our eco-friendly products we offer our customers and sustainable practices that we apply to our business, visit the ‘About Us’ page on our website.