March 2005
Dahlias, Dollars and The Dump By Mike Belling

Recycled products are turning rubbage into revenue.

Things are looking rosy for recycled products. From planters to picket fences, garden hoses to lumber, paving stones to garden edging, gardening products made from renewable resources have blossomed into higher and higher sales each year. With innovations in manufacturing and design, this new generation of earth-friendly products is anything but garden variety. And the retailers catching the trend are cultivating real profits.

Recycled materials used to be considered experimental, used only by environmentalists on the fringe of conventional thought. They used to have questionable quality and few applications, not to mention the high price of saving the earth. How times have changed! Consumers nowadays have been taught since kindergarten to care about the earth, and more people than ever before care about the environment. But they also care about good value and good looks. Today’s recycled products cost the same or less than their alternatives, work as well or better, and look as good or even better.

But here’s the big clincher: Besides being beautiful, durable and maintenance-free, recycled products are keeping hundreds of tons of garbage out of our overstuffed landfills. The numbers are staggering. For example, one manufacturer’s sturdy 14-inch terra cotta-style planter uses the equivalent of 2,500 sq.ft. of plastic wrap. That’s the size of a spacious three-bedroom, two-bathroom house! That same house’s old carpet will yield 20 feet of recycled picket fence. Imagine transforming mountains of empty soda bottles, plastics of all shapes and sizes, discarded rubber and carpet, and even computer monitor cases into a Shangri-La of potted perennials and garden accessories. More land, less landfill, better landscaping. This is why today’s savvy customers are buying “green” in droves.

A Growing Trend

Manufacturers are sprouting up all over to fill the growing demand, and plastic producers are rapidly converting their equipment to use recycled raw materials rather than virgin. Brand names such as DuraPlanter and SurfaceSaver from In Green Company are flying off the container shelves, while Superpicket Fencing from Vortex Composites, composed of recycled carpet fibers, is making surprising sales in lumber. Garden hoses from Colorite Plastics Company and garden edging from Plastic Services and Production Inc. are further examples of products reaping the benefits of the movement toward renewable resources.

As retailers are well aware, container gardening is on fire. More and more “empty nesters” of the baby-boomer generation are moving to town homes with decks and patios rather than big back yards. And daily news reports of contaminants in the soil and groundwater are motivating people to grow food in pots. Earth-friendly containers are a prevalent part of this sales boom. The increase in demand for quality recycled containers comes as no surprise to me, having been in the recycled products industry for more than a decade. Given the choice between plastic, which cracks, and terra cotta, which breaks, or a durable, realistic-looking recycled option at the same price, I have noticed that the customer will virtually always choose the product that is better for our environment.

Retailers could be on the cutting edge of opportunity right now. Nurseries carrying recycled products now can be way ahead of the curve, raking in the green while others catch up. Customers will drive farther to get their hands on this new breed of earth-friendly products, which means increased sales for those stores serving this audience. One colorful example involves a Texan having troubles with terra cotta pots too stubborn to remain intact. He traveled 200 miles and visited seven stores in order to stock up on our recycled plastic planters. While not your average weekender trying to beautify in his spare time, it shows the lengths some people will go to for quality recycled products.

Taking Advantage

So how do you, the lawn and garden retailer, make the most profit from this boom in recycled products? Promote them and become a destination store. Display all of your environmentally friendly products together — everything from organic soil to garden hoses to recycled containers — in one clearly marked area. Catchy signage saying “Quality Recycled Products” at the front of the store will point customers to this specialized area. Creative displays will especially catch attention. One retailer received dozens of comments about the huge ball of plastic wrap at the front of his store — a memorable way to grab customers and get the town talking!

Sustainability is here to stay, which is good news for lawn and garden retailers who want to sustain sales growth. Aside from the environmental benefit of relieving already overflowing landfills, most customers will purchase recycled products now that the quality has surpassed other products and the attractive appearance is so close to the real thing. Indeed, curbside recycling has become courtyard splendor.



Mike Belling

Mike Belling is president of In Green Company. If you have questions about capitalizing on environmentally friendly products, he can be reached by phone at (415) 294-7799 or E-mail at [email protected].