Should supermarkets be banned from selling plants

My local Waitrose water their plants with a very good selection.

 

If I worked in a supermarket that didn't water their plants I'm sure I would have to go round and do it in my lunch break.
I couldn't just watch it all die.

 

I've noticed the watering of plants in/outside shops is very branch-dependent, and varies from year to year (presumably down to staff changes), so I don't think it's a matter of policy. I wouldn't ban supermarkets etc selling plants, but it would be nice if the staff assigned to water them etc had at least a modicum of basic training. I bought two fuchsias from our local Morrisons this morning, that had obviously been watered recently. The till lady was a bit grumpy about them leaving water on the belt.

 

But they are living things.

I have bought plants I don't want just to end their suffering. They always reward me by reviving and doing their best.

Yes, it's a first world problem, but as it is easily solvable, why not do so? (Most of the world's problems are caused by the first world's relentless drive for profits and this is no different.)

 

I work near a large Tesco and this time of year I pop
In every day on my way to work to rescue unwatered plants which I often bring back to life then give away I just can’t bear to see those poor dying plants. They are always reduced sp even if I don’t want them I can save them and put the outside free to a good home but I can not save them all because I go to and from work on a bus

 

It would be better to ban the americanised pagan festival....it would save us all a load of grief

 

It's not a first world problem.

I used to work at a big petrochemical site. I was in IT there but my job put me in regular contact with the various management and supervisors in the industrial side. Bear with me, you'll see where I'm going soon.

The site did several of the many steps involved in turning crude oil into plant pots. Oil would be brought in by pipe and by ship, and put into the cracker to be split into different groups of molecules. The oil going in is itself an immense volume. But the process, and I have to massively oversimplify here, is to basically heat one end of a cylinder to very high temperature while freezing the other end. The temperature gradient causes different molecules to form in layers along the length of the cylinder. This heating and cooling uses huge amounts of energy. So much so that they have their own on site power station to supplement what they can take from the grid.

Not all of the oil in the cracker becomes plastic. If the process runs flawlessly within normal parameters, which it doesn't always do, then some small percentage will be something close to what we recognise as plastic. Other layers will include various hydrocarbon gases, which are usually just burned off in the flare stacks, and a largely useless thick sludge.

The plastic nurdles are bagged up in huge bulk bags. They go by road to the port, where they then go on a ship, typically bound for China. Some will spill en route, and end up being the part of the plastic pollution problem we're increasingly hearing about.

Once in China, the plastic nurdles will be melted and mixed with various pigments and other chemicals, then made into things. Plant pots are actually quite a big percentage of the end result. Then off they go on ships again, all around the world, including back to the UK.

So after our little adventure from the middle east oil fields to the UK to China and back again, what does this have to do with supermarket plants?

Well I skipped a lot of steps in this lifecycle story, and it's already quite long. But I think it shows that one little plant pot has quite an environmental impact. Maybe that's fine if the pot is going to be reused many times until it physically breaks up. I'm not judging. I use plastic pots like everyone else. But what if, after all that, it gets filled with peat based compost lifted straight from some natural wetland, stuck in an HGV, only to ultimately go to landfill.

 

The actual moaning about supermarkets and plants IS a first world problem. The destroying of the planet and it's occupants and habitat is a subject which is frequently broached, but it won't be addressed all the time the demand drives the supply. The cost for greener ways of doing things makes it prohibitive to the vast majority of people. When that is affordable, we might be able to start cleaning up our act

 

Demand materialises, and grows, depending on supply.

 

I think the point is that by calling it a first world problem, you seem to be implying that it has no effect on anyone else,and is therefore a non issue.

I think that some of the people living in places that used to be paradise, but now look like dumping grounds, might disagree. As might some of the people facing ever increasing risks from natural disaster due to accelerating climate change. Those people might not think it's a first world problem that we use huge amounts of resources just to send it to landfill.

 

I see this issue as similar to food waste. There has been a lot of discussion for years about food waste in the UK and the retailers' role in trying to reduce this, plus charities that collect and use surplus food. Yes, it is a first-world problem in that there are many parts of the world where there is not enough food, let alone binning unsold food. But first-world or not, it doesn't change the fact that it's a terrible waste of precious resources that have been used to produce the food/plants.

 

As Britain is fast becoming a third world country I can't see how this first second or third business fits in, its just a waste, end of.

 

Yes. There seems to be a big discrepancy in retailers and localities. Imo Sainsbury's/Homebase/Tesco are the worst. They have never responded to any feedback over the years. Aldi/Lidl/Asda the next worst but seem to have more turnover. I personally have found Morrisons to be the best. Next the DIY sheds like B&Q, a huge difference between stores. Although I use local nurseries for buying, like any plant addict I can't help but looking wherever I go and I could weep when I see those dying plants

 

When I read in newspaper comments it would be just a first world problem, I find this attitude to belittle a topic most of the time not well-thought.

The use of plastic for useless things is happening world-wide.
Reducing it has often started with "for many years ... a campaign .... a small group.." like for plastic free straws, food packaging ....

 

In any supermarket I have been in that sells plants, I have not seen any evidence, ever, that would back up the notion that they should be allowed to sell them in the first place.

Selling plants is not like selling tins of beans. The live plants need care whilst there to keep them looking nice, but they simply do not have the expertise to do this.

I keep tropical fish. It would be no different in my opinion if supermarkets started selling live fish, which they'd fail at miserably.

Leave plants to places that know what they're doing, ie nurseries. Supermarkets should stick to selling baked beans!