Spring means time for potting, planting, and trips to our Meijer garden center. While purchasing flowers and plants provides an opportunity to spruce up outdoor spaces, it also leaves many gardeners with piles of empty plastic trays that once held plants. That’s why we encourage our customers to drop them off for free in all our garden centers.
As a new Meijer team member, Sustainability Analyst Annalise Steketee recently learned about the garden center recycling program and is looking forward to utilizing it.
“I buy a number of plants from the Meijer garden center, mostly herbs and veggies,” Annalise said. “My family has a vegetable garden that we start in the spring. We enjoy the harvest throughout the summer."
In the past, Annalise said, she would save the plastic containers and trays she accumulated while gardening because she never found a way to use or recycle them.
"Oftentimes they’ve been hoarded in my garage hoping they will get a second use, however usually that is not the case."
As part of our ongoing sustainability efforts, we aim to help customers find a purpose for unwanted plastic. Customers can bring in gardening containers purchased from any retailer and drop them off on recycling carts available at each of our garden centers.
Meijer garden centers began collecting plastic containers on recycling carts in 2014 – an initiative that contributed to the recycling of 1,825 tons of plastic through East Jordan Plastics Inc., a South Haven-based plastic processing company. Both companies work hand-in-hand to consolidate, sort and ship containers for recycling.
As a sustainability analyst, Annalise emphasized the many ways our customers can practice sustainability in our stores beyond the garden center.
“There is the garden recycling drop off option along with other store drop-off opportunities, such as film and plastic bag recycling. As a company, Meijer diverts waste from manufacturing facilities and stores and aims to recycle as much as possible.”