Feel guilty using the brown plastic plant pots when you’re trying to cut down on plastic?
There’s a new alternative on the block, made from ocean waste.
Let’s dive in…
What are ocean plastic pots?
Fed up of seeing ocean plastic waste, commercial diver Ally Mitchell launched Ocean Plastic Pots last year to help play his part in cleaning up our oceans.
Based in Glasgow, Ally’s day job is taking on all manner of sub-sea tasks as a diver but with Ocean Plastic Pots he has found a way to turn the discarded rope found in the seas into plant pots.
And a percentage of the sales from each pot goes to Ghost Fishing UK, a charity of volunteer technical divers who specialise in the removal of lost fishing gear and rope.
Net profit: How this project turns ghost fishing nets into great socks
Ally comments; “In December 2019 a whale washed up on Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris. It had 100kg of rope, fishing net and plastic debris inside of it.
“Three months later I found myself working as a diver on the salvage of the MV Kaami. It had hit a reef only 20km from the very same beach where the whale had washed up. This job was the trigger that would lead me in the direction of Ocean Plastic Pots”.
“The boat was carrying 1937 tons of Pelletised refuse derived fuel (predominately plastic waste) to be incinerated.
“The salvage was a success and successfully preventing that amount of plastic entering our seas inspired me to create plant pots from a waste material, allowing for future growth.
“Scotland has some amazing marine life and its impact from pollution is real. This is a small part but I really believe we all have a responsibility to reduce the amount of plastic we use on a daily basis.
It is estimated that eight million tons of plastic enter our oceans every year. That is a terrifying amount, causing grave harm to the future of our planet.”
Recyclable and built to last
Having started recycling the plastic himself, Ally now works with a Scottish company to manufacture them.
He’s partnered with an innovative recycler of discarded rope and fishing net enabling him to make his plant pots on a much larger scale, to meet demand.
His pots can also be recycled, but they are built to last.
And there’s huge demand.
British gardeners go through 500 million plastic plant pots and seed trays each year. And that was before the lockdown-inspired boom in gardening and house plants.
If Ally can turn even a small percentage of those keen green-fingered people onto his Ocean Plastic Pots, he’ll be saving tonnes of plastic going into the ocean, and using up what is already there.
Ally’s Ocean Plastic Pots won The RHS Chelsea Flower Show Sustainable Garden Product of the Year Award 2021.
Visit Ocean Plastic Pots online to shop recycled plastic pots here.
