Reuse

Conservation Initiatives – Material Reuse

When possible, we recover used nursery flats from the waste stream of other nearby nurseries.

• We rarely need to buy some materials because of the ready availability of functional but used materials that would otherwise go into the trash – for example, nursery flats (bottom trays).
• When we deliver plants to construction sites, we return the empty bottom trays to our farm to be reused.

We use compost that comes from spent soil that is discarded by the mushroom industry of nearby Southeast Pennsylvania.
We recently improved our planting media mix.

• Our prior mix used mostly Canadian peat which is non-renewable and has a significant transportation impact.
• We’ve switched to a composted organic mix from North Carolina, and a locally produced compost mix with much less peat content.

We gather used cooking oil and kitchen grease from local restaurants.

• The oil is burned for heat in our waste-oil boiler or made into biodiesel in our own biodiesel processor.
• Some employees have modified their personal cars to use this waste vegetable oil as well.
• We provide the oil to employees for free, and biodiesel to employees at just the cost of processing it, about $1.20 / gallon.
• The oil is locally obtained and we support a small start-up local business that collects it and delivers it to us – Atlantic Biofuels.

We reuse construction materials.

• The upper level of our barn is space that is dedicated to storing and organizing lumber, parts, materials, and supplies which are recovered from areas of our own operation and other nearby sources (i.e. waste).
• These items are then available for use in construction projects around the farm.
• For example, a nearby retired nursery owner donated dozens of wooden greenhouse supports for temporary snow-load protection.  These are stored during the year for use in our greenhouses in the winter.

• Local farmers are now aware of our desire to reuse materials, and call us regularly with offerings that they would otherwise throw away.

We reuse cardboard and boxes.

• All cardboard containers that come into our operation are kept for reuse.
• Odd sizes and excess are recycled.

Office Supplies

• We use 100% recycled office paper.

Capital projects are implemented using locally obtained used materials as much as possible.

• We use eBay, Craigslist, local bargain papers, and personal relationships as sources for locally available materials.

Wait a Minute!

Where’s the Peat?  Isn’t Peat Moss the best stuff to grow plants in?  Don’t you use Peat?

Nope.