Page 34 - ALG Issue 2 2018 html

General
Plastic in the Garden
QSeveral members including allotment officers and societies have contacted us about plastic use on allotments and what can be done to reduce plastic
pollution from our allotment gardening.
AEach year more than 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally and at least 8,000,000 tons end up in the sea.
It is estimated that there is now a 1:2 ratio of plastic to plankton and, left unchecked, plastic will outweigh fish by 2050.
In the 1950s, plastic was seen as the wonder product that was going to change our lives, heralding a brand new modern age. It added a dash of zing, came in a range of bright colours, didn’t fade and was hard wearing. Raincoats, rainhats, shoes, sandals, bowls, buckets; all sorts of things – and, importantly for gardeners, plastic watering cans that didn’t rust. After the austerity years of World War Two followed by five more of rationing the public couldn’t get enough of plastic. Nobody could have imagined that 60 years later the world would be looking at a global catastrophe
brought about by plastic. Most of the plastic produced over the previous 65 years or so is still with us in some form today. Half of it has been manufactured in the past 13 years.
the enthusiasm with which these new products were embraced
by gardeners; they wanted more and more, and they weren’t to
be disappointed. Seed trays, hanging baskets, plant labels, trugs, propagator lids, twine, hosepipes and even plastic wheelbarrows. The list just kept growing and hasn’t stopped.
Clear polythene film proved to be the ideal replacement for glass. Glass is expensive, comes in rigid sheets, is difficult to cut and fix, and is easily broken, becoming a danger in the garden especially when it enters the soil. Polythene on the other hand is flexible and produced in lengths and widths to suit the job. It is easily cut using scissors, doesn’t shatter, and is relatively cheap to replace when damaged. Originally polythene skins were used to cover wooden- framed greenhouses. This eventually led to the development of
the polytunnel and continuous cloches. A further use for coloured polythene sheets or tarpaulins is to cover the surface of the soil to suppress weeds, help it warm up in the spring, or protect the soil from damaging heavy winter rain.
Along with other nations the UK has relied on exporting its scrap plastic to China for recycling. As a consequence of China’s decision not to recycle imported scrap plastic from 2018 we will see 350,000 tons of UK plastic go unrecycled this year. It will probably be stored in a recycling facility until a decision has been made on how to deal with the problem.
Even if there is no realistic prospect of the production of plastic being stopped in the immediate or long term future, that is no reason not to consider
reducing or eliminating the use of plastic in our personal life.
It is difficult to comprehend gardening without plastic. But, it is
something that we are going to have to seriously consider. We don’t have to turn the clock back 60 years but as gardeners we must begin to look at using other products that are non-plastic. Plastic is even used to reinforce tea bags to prevent them braking up in the mug - this is why little nets can often be found in the compost heap - but the tea companies are now beginning to substitute natural
It was during the 1950s that gardeners were
first introduced to brand new plastic flower
pots and polythene sheets. Terracotta flower
pots were heavy to handle (especially when
full of soil based composts), difficult to clean,
and if you dropped them they smashed into
fragments and had to be replaced. Plastic pots were so much lighter to use, had a smooth surface that made them as easy to clean as washing up a tea cup and didn’t break if dropped. A further attraction was the improved drainage provided by the multiple holes at the bottom of the plastic pots. This was also a crucial element when using the newly developed lighter non-soil peat based composts recently introduced from America. Gone forever were the days of crocking over the single drainage hole in a terracotta pot. The old fashioned clay flower pots became redundant overnight. It isn’t difficult to appreciate
34
Each year more than 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally and at least 8,000,000 tons end up in the sea