University of Florida

Alternative Nursery Containers


Containers let nursery growers ship plants, prolong the life of plants, and grow plants on land unsuitable for field production. Container production is now the dominant method of nursery production.

Nursery production has used a variety of containers for plant production in its history. Growers shipped and sold bare-root plants wrapped in burlap, grew plants in clay containers, and even used commercial food cans discarded by restaurants. Eventually plastic containers were made specifically for nursery production and replaced metal cans. These remain the most popular containers today.

Petroleum-Based Plastic Containers

Usually plastic nursery containers are manufactured using new petroleum resins, but many now contain recycled material. Some containers are even made of completely recycled plastics. These recycled containers are not biodegradable, but are more sustainable than new containers.

There are significant barriers to getting a high recycling rate with plastic nursery containers. In order to be recycled, used containers need to be retrieved from the customer, sorted by resin type, cleaned to remove potting soil and other contaminants, and then shipped to a recycling facility. 

In practice, plastic nursery containers are rarely recycled, which decreases the sustainability of using these containers in nursery production.

Alternative Containers

Nursery containers made with no petroleum-based materials appeal to consumers and growers. Studies show that consumers prefer containers that are "carbon neutral" or are made from recycled or waste materials (e.g., rice hulls or paper waste) and will pay more for these types of containers.

Alternative containers are made from a variety of materials, which are usually plant-based and naturally fibrous. These materials are chopped and ground up, then molded and held together by adhesives and binders.

Non-plastic containers are usually compostable but may not biodegrade quickly depending on the materials used. Biodegradable containers can be left on the root ball when a plant is put in the ground. Compostable containers have to be removed and then broken up before they can be composted.

Physical Properties

When deciding whether to use alternative containers,  some considerations include the container strength, water loss through the container (which affects irrigation), algal and fungal growth on the exteriors of the containers (which affects appearance), and the rate of decomposition in the soil.

Research has generally found the following for non-petroleum containers:

  • These containers lose strength when wet (though most would not break or tear when handled).
  • Plants grown in these containers require more irrigation amounts and at a greater frequency than crops grown in petroleum-plastic containers.
  • If made of peat or wood fiber, these containers show significant algal and fungal growth.
  • There is faster decomposition in the soil for cellulose containers than for lignin and coconut fiber containers.

Costs and Marketing

Alternative containers are not as inexpensive as one might expect, but some growers justify the additional cost by considering alternative containers as a value-added product. The added value is the opportunity to market the containers based on their biodegradable/compostable properties or their construction from waste or recycled products.

The demand for alternative containers that has been building over the past few years continues to increase. If the demand for alternative containers continues to rise, more manufacturing will take place, and their prices should begin to fall. Compare this with the variable prices of petroleum-based containers, which are subject to the availability and price of petroleum.

Table 1. Examples of container components and products used as alternatives to petroleum-based plastic.*

Component(s)

Product Example

Bamboo, rice husks, straw

Biopots

Coir (coconut fiber)

Kord Fiber Grow Coir Pots

CoCo Coir Pots

Corn

PLA (made from polylactic acid)

Cow manure

CowPots™

Organic recycled materials

OP47 Bio

Paper

Ellepot®

Peat

Jiffypot®

Recycled paper or cardboard

Kord Fiber Grow Nursery Pot

Premium Quality Containers

Rice hull

Ecoforms

Eco360 Net

Straw, coconut

The Straw Pot™

Wheat

Eco 360

Wood fiber

Fertilpots

Wood fiber, peat

DOT Pots™

*These products are listed only as examples and do not signify an endorsement by UF/IFAS Extension.

Adapted and excerpted from:

G. Knox and M. Chappell, Alternatives to Petroleum-Based Containers for the Nursery Industry (ENH1193), Environmental Horticulture Department (11/2011).

Nursery greenhouse

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