Sustainability

House plants that don’t cost the Earth.

People love having a little, green piece of the nature in their homes, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest natural world. That’s why we’ve always committed to running Little Green as responsibly and sustainably as we can.

All of our plants are potted in peat-free compost and in plastic-free terracotta pots. Little Green’s little HQ is run entirely on renewable energy and we even run our own recycling scheme for unused plant pots. We pretty proud of all that, but we can always do more and we won’t be slowing-down on sustainability any time soon!

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Plastic-Free

In the UK we consume more than 5 million tonnes of plastic and less than a quarter of that gets recycled. Waste plastic has a huge environmental impact as it either sits for hundreds of years in landfill, is incinerated, or pollutes land and waterways where it has a devastating impact on wildlife.

The production of virgin plastic is also a hugely energy-intensive process which in itself contributes to global climate change and the depletion of natural resources.

Plastic plant pots are a problem as they are commonly made from ‘hard plastics’ which many local councils (including Bristol) don’t collect. This leads to most of them either piling-up in gardens and sheds or just being thrown in the wheelie bin.

At Little Green we’re striving to become plastic-free. We sell all of our plants pre-potted in attractive, long-lasting and reusable terracotta or ceramic pots. That means we can make sure any plastic pots used during their cultivation either get reused or recycled.

In addition, we offer a recycling service, inviting our customers to bring us their old plastic plant pots. We take these unwanted pots and put them to good use.

We also only use easily recyclable paper carrier bags, ensuring our customers get their lovely new plants home safely, but without contributing to the huge problem of plastic bag waste.

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Reusing and Recycling

Plastic plant pots can be problematic as they are commonly made from ‘hard plastics’ which many local councils don’t accept in kerbside collections. This leads to most of them either piling-up in gardens and sheds or just being thrown in the wheelie bin to be dumped on landfill.

That’s why we’ve partnered with the Five Acre Farm to create our own recycling scheme. We’ll take-in your unwanted, hard-to-recycle plastic plant pots and put them back to work, keeping them out of landfill.

Old plastic plant pots can be surprising useful. Many of your donated pots get put to use on Five Acre Farm and used to grow things like organic fruit and vegetables. We also help-out local education and community organisations who run engaging horticulture projects with children and vulnerable people.

Got some pots?

Just rinse-off your unwanted plastic pots and drop them off at our Tobacco Factory market stall on Sunday. We’ll take them off your hands and put them to good use.

Visit The Market

Need some pots?

If you need some free plastic plant pots, just drop us a message and let us know roughly how many you need and if you have any other preferences such as size. We’ll do our best to get some for you.

Contact Us
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Run on Renewables

Little Green HQ runs entirely on clean, renewable energy from the sun, sea and air.

During the day, our own rooftop solar panels get the kettle boiling and keep our potting hands warm. When the sun goes down, we pipe-in renewable energy from Ecotricity.

We’re always working hard to decrease our use of fossil fuels, and this extends to making deliveries and plant maintenance visits by bike whenever possible.

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Peat-Free

Peat is a mush of partially-decayed vegetation and other organic matter. You’ve probably seen it as a common ingredient in compost used in agriculture, domestic gardening and in the potting of houseplants. The problem is, peat only forms naturally in places like bogs and moors and harvesting it has a significant environmental impact.

Peatlands are the most effective carbon sink on the planet, which means they’re very good and absorbing and holding onto CO2. When peat is harvested, vast amounts of this CO2 are released into the atmosphere, which has a huge impact on global climate change. In fact, a 2010 study found that peatland degradation accounted for almost 6% of all global carbon emissions!

Peatlands are also home to many rare plant and animal species, due to the unique acidic environment peat creates. Peat extraction is a very destructive process and irreparably damages the natural habitat of snakes, dragonflies, mosses and other species.

We only ever use peat-free compost to pot our plants. This was a commitment we made from day one, but it turns out, the specialist compost that cacti and succulents need to thrive, isn’t widely available without peat. That’s why we developed our own!

Dr. T’s Succulent Compost is completely peat-free and we’ve finely tuned it to keep succulents, cacti and other arid plants happy and healthy. Every cacti and succulent we sell comes potted in it. We also sell Dr. T’s Succulent Compost by the bag so you can use it to re-pot any that you have at home. Find it at any of our markets or our online shop, or contact us to arrange a larger order.