May Sustainable Business Champion - Mitre 10 MEGA New Plymouth

Did you know our Mitre 10 MEGA in New Plymouth is the first of three stores to launch the trial Pot Recycling program in the country? They have committed to the trial as a sustainably focused team, and Member Principal, Stuart Jones, comments:

“Sustainability is a key focus in our business, both from a national and local perspective. It is important to our community and environment that we keep working with our supply partners and having those conversations on how we can do better, and implementing change where we can.”

Julie Roberts introducing the Pot Recycle program on 15th May at the Mitre 10 Autumn Gardening Event.

We applaud their local philanthropic and environmental outreach, specifically The Pot Recycling program and the seemingly endless donations to the Marfell Community garden.

Read more about the Mitre 10 Helping Hands Community Initiative - Marfell Community Garden that took place on Sunday 2nd May 2021.

The Pot Recycling program

We interviewed Julie Roberts, head of sustainability at the Mitre 10 corporate office, and here’s what we learned.

Gardeners can now bring their clean plastic ID 5 seedling/plant pots back to Mitre 10 Mega in the Valley off of Smart Road, and they will be recycled into new ones. Soon the Mitre 10 store on St. Aubyn street will also be a collection point.

These pots must be clean so that they can be properly recycled.

These pots would otherwise end up in our landfill, as our Taranaki region does not recycle them. Many people are not aware that these pots can’t go into our yellow top kerbside recycling bins even though they are a number 5 plastic. This is because the potential contamination puts recycling workers at risk, the plastic becomes brittle in the sun, and the colour black is typically undesirable for recycling.

Julie is excited to finally close the loop, as The Pot Recycling program has been a year in the making. There are still many more steps, but we are all thrilled that New Plymouth is the first to take on this challenge to lessen the gardening world footprint.

Working with their largest nursery supplier, Zealandia Horticulture Ltd., will ensure that this recycling scheme can be applied to the many others who supply Mitre 10 with plants and seedlings down the line. The pots will be collected and turned into a resin which is then used to make the grey pots. Consumers will soon start seeing the grey pots around Mitre 10 garden centres, and they will know that these have been recycled.

The Pot Recycle program is a trial in the New Plymouth store, so if it goes well, it could roll out to Mitre 10 stores around New Zealand.

Please bring your clean plastic planter pots to the Mitre 10 MEGA New Plymouth location on your next visit to support this initiative!

To learn what items can go in your yellow top kerbside bin, head to the Zero Waste Taranaki website

New Zealand Plant Producers Incorporated chief executive Matthew Dolan said “New Zealand's nursery industry produced about 350 million plants in pots each year.” - cited from Stuff Article written by John Anthony

Read more about Plant Nursery trials to reduce garden waste.