The Blue Diamond Group, which recognises that plastic compost bags are single-use, has been working closely with one of its key suppliers, Evergreen Garden Care.

Research, recently conducted by the HTA/Foresight Factory in Oct 2021, shows that 71% of British adults are consciously trying to minimise their use of plastic to help the environment, and that 50% of adults do not believe that big brands are doing enough (Greenpeace 2021). 

Compost bags, known as flexible plastics (PVC), cannot be collected at kerbside currently, although there are plans with the Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme to help fund this, it is unlikely for this service to be available for several years.

Composts bags are challenging to recycle, due to the contamination of soil in the bags, so supermarket recycling programmes were not suitable for compost bags.  The compost bags need to be washed, and only specialist processors can do this. 

Evergreen Garden Care under the market leading gardening brand Miracle-Gro, decided to run a small-scale trial to replicate the Supermarket “Bring back to store” Scheme but with compost bags.  

It was a category solution, where any manufacturer’s bags could be returned and the quality of the material analysed to assess whether the waste material collected could be made into products and an end market created.  If the waste material could be separated from other soft plastics, it was considered that the material could be of a good enough quality to create products, ideally garden furniture or gardening equipment, or even compost bags, hence making it totally circular and avoiding the items going into landfill.

Blue Diamond has announced that each of its garden centres will have a collection bin, with clear instructions of what can be placed into the bin. These will be located in either the car park, the compost yard or by the drive-in compost yard. 

The initiative aims to save 70% of CO2 emissions associated with the production of new plastic. It aims to recycle an estimated 40 million bags, diverting them from landfill and using them to make garden furniture amongst other things.