Upcycled plastic plant pots

Long description

In South Africa most soft drink plastic bottles are sold without deposit, meaning there is no incentive to return them. As a result, streets and neighbourhoods are littered with plastic bottles.

#MOOP Swoop: Plastic bottles from Woodstock’s streets

https://trulyjuly.wordpress.com/2020/04/17/moop-swoop-plastic-bottles-from-woodstocks-streets/

Another more positive problem I had during lockdown was that our garden was thriving, but garden centres were closed and I couldn’t buy plant pots.

So I upcycled them from plastic bottles.

Testing upcycled plant pots: The winner is – juice bottles!

https://trulyjuly.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/testing-upcycled-plant-pots-the-winner-is-juice-bottles/

Plant nurseries sell their plants in single-use plastic flower pots.

To turn plastic bottles into plant pots is straight-forward and no special skills are required.

South Africa has a high unemployment rate, a lot of unskilled labour are looking for jobs.

On community level plastic bottles can be collected, so they don’t get discarded on the streets.

These plastic bottles get upcycled into plant pots, which can be sold to nurseries instead of those single-use plastic flower pots.

Of course, the question is: Is it feasible for a person to work on upcycling plastic bottles, if the payment per upcycled plant pot is low.

But maybe the fact that this means not only is plastic being reused instead of going to landfill, also the production of new plastic pots is being avoided altogether could be of extra value.

Sponsors could step in to give a monetary value for this reduction of plastic pollution. All the soft drink giants for example.

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