Native Plant Nursery Pot Recycling Program

In 2025, the Native Plant Nursery debuted a new pot recycling initiative to support our sustainability efforts and decrease landfill-bound plastic waste. 

Unfortunately, most nursery pots are not recyclable in standard curbside programs for many reasons. Pots are difficult for sorting machines to organize because their dark color absorbs infrared light and many pots that end up in recycling bins are not properly cleaned, which also disqualifies them from recycling. 

So, how do we combat plastic waste?

On select dates, the Nursery will accept cleaned 4-inch Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve Native Plant Nursery pots for Terracycle. Terracycle is a private recycling company that focuses on recycling traditionally non-recyclable waste. They can recycle billions of pieces of waste that would otherwise become trash. The Nursery has purchased Terracycle collection boxes and will be holding three collection dates in 2026: Saturday, May 2, Saturday, July 11, and Saturday, November 7. 

This way, we know our pots get recycled and are kept out of landfills. 

So, please drop by on Saturday, May 2, Saturday, July 11 and Saturday, November 7, to return your pots and ensure they are recycled. Please remember that they must be 4-inch pots with Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve barcode labels and they should be rinsed and wiped free of residue.

Please note that to ensure the success of this program and to prevent introducing pests or diseases to the nursery, we can only accept clean, used Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve pots during scheduled recycling events.

Thank you to everyone who supported this program in 2025! At our last event, we collected nearly 500 pots! 

If you're interested in supporting this important sustainability initiative, we are seeking a $500 sponsor for our upcoming event. For details, please contact development@bhwp.org.