There are so many ways that you can reduce pollution on the planet, and plastic is certainly one of the biggest ecological threats as far as pollutants go, it easily ends up in water sources or fields where it is digested by animals and often leads to their death, and that is not even leaning into the bio degradable aspect of the stuff.

Although many people abstain completely from plastic, more specifically single use plastic, it is not easy for everyone to follow that path. especially seeing that we live in a day and age where convenience and time preservation plays a key part in our every day lives.

Recycling of course is another great way to stop plastic pollution, but many people don't always have access to recycling points, or simply just don't bother. And although it is up to every single person to make a difference, we have to take into account that there are a lot of people and institutions that either can't or simply wont.

And that is were re-using comes in handy!

I must say, that here on the farm, we do try to stay away from purchasing unnecessary plastic items, and when plastic does find its way here, we make sure that we use it to the fullest before recycling it... Single use plastic; What's that??

That right there in the picture above is a garbage site that I simply love to visit. It is a dumping site of a very large agricultural nursery, here they discard a huge amount of once used potting soil as well as planting bags, and I have made arrangements with them to help rid them of their waste, by collecting the bags as well as the compost from their site, and then re-using it on the farm for my own nursery in stead of purchasing new plastic bags that would just get dumped back into the eco-system at some stage. Plus at the same time, I get wonderful nutrient rich potting soil out of the deal as well.

I then mix this potting soil in with some manure as well as vermipost and then re-bag the soil before using it to plant my seedlings in. Here you can see a freshly offloaded heap of potting soil that still needs to be mixed. The seedlings that I plant include plants that I get readied for planting out on the farm for agricultural purposes, food and flower gardens, as well as propagation consignments that I do for other farmers, and the great thing is that these bags then gets used over and over again, until they have finally outlived every purpose that they could possibly have before they head off to a recycling plant. This not only makes me feel a bit better regarding my contribution towards preserving the world that we live in, but it also helps me reduce the capital outlay for my propagation efforts.

Now this by no means helps the fact that this plastic was put into the cycle in the first place, however it does stop a big deal of new plastic to syphon its way in on top of it.

(Above: some of the plants currently making use of the re-used bags and potting soil)

Re-using plastic is sure a unsung hero when it comes to the reduction of circulating plastic product, as people will very easily discard plastic products without giving it a second thought. And the sad thing is that the there are so many ways that you can re-use plastic that is already circulating.

Occasionally plastic shopping bags world make its way into my home, mostly through people that come to visit, and what I then do with them is fold them neatly so that they are easy to manage, and then re-use them when I have to do a trip to the shop. 2L plastic cold-drink bottles, should they reach the farm get stored as they come in handy as nursing bottles for orphaned baby animals, or even if we need to juice out fruits or make and store home-made cordials.

Another way that I choose to re-use plastic, is by re-appropriating some old juice bottles that I found lying around, by cutting off their tops and using them for propagating or rooting herb cuttings in my nursery. In short they are simply used as conveniently small water vases that the herb cuttings can rest in until they have formed sustainable roots before planting them out into bags until they are strong enough to plant out into the garden.

So there you have it - when cutting down on plastic always remember to REDUCE, RE-USE and RECYCLE!