ASK THE GREEN TEAM
In response to The Commercial Appeal’s goal to be the “green umbrella” for the community, we have started a feature called “Ask the Green Team.” This week, Bill Byrd of Memphis writes: “Most plants come in ‘code 5’ plastic containers. This type of plastic is not accepted by the city’s recycling program. Do any local gardens or nurseries accept donations of these containers?”
Answer: Good news — (Code 5 refers to polypropylene, or PP plastic, which is not known to pose a health hazard) there are several places that will gladly accept your plastic plant containers, including:
Lichterman Nature Center, 5992 Quince, has a greenhouse that can reuse those pots. There’s drop - off sign near the front entry indicating where to leave them that reads “Recycle Pots Here.”
Andy Williams, manager of Lichterman Nature Center, said, “We use them extensively in plant propagation for our demonstration gardens and our annual plant sale. No need to sort them, just bring the pots to LNC during our regular hours of operation — Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
Shelby Farms will accept plastic pots, and are especially interested in the larger sizes that can be used to propagate trees.
Take the pots inside the Visitors Center, 500 N. Pine Lake Drive, in the park just off of Walnut Grove and Farm Road, during daylight hours, seven days a week.
4339 Park, will accept a limited number of the plastic pots based on their needs, but call ahead — (901) 761-5250 — to schedule a drop - off at the greenhouse, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Memphis Botanic Garden does NOT accept them due to the amount of labor involved in prepping them for re -use, shortage of storage space, etc.
If you haven’t done so already, please “like” the Going Green Memphis Facebook page. There you can read more responses to the questions we print.
And soon we will be archiving those comments onto our website so they can be accessed when the original comments roll off the Facebook page.
Readers can e-mail questions relating to environmental issues to: Emily Adams Keplinger at keplinger@commercialappeal.com or Kim Coleman at colemank@commercialappeal.com.