Why do we want your garden pots back?

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As a nursery, our goals include helping people restore bits of native habitat in their yards. The larger mission is to make our desert an ecologically better place. We believe the more people who can afford to replace their garden plants with natives the better, so we try hard to keep our prices very low and our plants accessible to everyone who wants them. 

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One way you can help us keep our prices low is to return your garden pots to us!

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Why shouldn’t I recycle my pots?

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Both Home Depot and Lowes offer garden pot recycling programs. Undoubtedly they are located more conveniently than we are up here in Sky Valley. Please consider not dropping off your garden pots at Home Depot or Lowes despite it being easier.

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Recycling is always an admirable goal, but sadly so much of our community recycling is wishcycling — as in “I wish this was recyclable.” 

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The reality is that most of those pots are probably headed for the landfill. By reusing them, we keep them out of the landfill as long as possible.

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Also, plastic is a petroleum product, so even if you recycle the one you used, making another one requires more extraction and pollution to produce it. Reusing pots means we don’t need to produce more of them!

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Perhaps larger scale nurseries and retailers would be too burdened by a proper pot reuse program, but we’re able to do things the right way here at DesertStrawHouse because that matters more to us than making big profits.