Walk behind many community garden sheds at the end of the growing season, and you'll often find stacks of cracked plastic nursery pots waiting for someone to deal with them.
In the United States alone, an estimated 500 million plastic plant pots, trays, and flats are produced each year, generating roughly 350 million pounds of plastic waste. Most are difficult to recycle and ultimately end up in landfills or incinerators.
For community gardeners committed to sustainability, this creates a frustrating contradiction: growing food and nurturing the environment while relying on single-use plastic containers that often outlive the plants they once held.
This is the problem Ocean Made's Kelp Pots were designed to solve, and why we launched The Kelping Hands Project to put biodegradable seed-starting pots directly into the hands of community growers across King County, Washington.
The problem with plastic nursery pots
Plastic nursery pots do one job incredibly well: they survive.
Unfortunately, they survive long after the seedlings they were made to hold.
Most curbside recycling programs won't accept them. They're often contaminated with soil, made from plastics that are difficult to recycle, and simply aren't economical for most recycling facilities to process.
The result? Millions of plastic nursery pots enter the U.S. waste stream every year, where many will sit in landfills for decades (or longer).
It's an odd contradiction. We garden to grow healthier food, build healthier soil, and spend more time connected to nature. Yet one of the first things many of us reach for is a product designed to become waste.
Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way. Biodegradable seed-starting pots give gardeners another option, one that can be planted directly into the ground instead of tossed into the trash.
What makes a good biodegradable seed-starting pot?
Not all biodegradable pots are created equal. A solid one should do four things well.
Start with renewable materials
Every pot has an environmental footprint before it ever reaches your garden. Look for materials that are renewable, responsibly sourced, and don't rely on resource-intensive inputs like freshwater, fertilizer, or farmland to grow.
Break down naturally
Some pots are marketed as biodegradable but remain surprisingly intact after planting. A good biodegradable pot should gradually become part of the soil, not another thing left behind underground.
Support healthy root growth
A pot shouldn't become a barrier once it's planted. Look for materials that allow roots to grow through naturally while still providing enough structure to support healthy seedlings before transplanting.
Make transplanting simpler
The fewer obstacles between a seedling and the garden, the better. Plantable pots reduce handling during transplanting, helping gardeners move plants into the ground without removing them from their container.
These are the principles that guided the development of Ocean Made's Kelp Pots. By combining sustainably harvested kelp with recycled paper fibers, we set out to create a peat-free, plantable pot that works with nature instead of against it.
The Kelping Hands Project: biodegradable pots for community gardens
Community gardeners across King County using Ocean Made Kelp Pots through The Kelping Hands Project.
This year, Ocean Made donated approximately 2,000 Kelp Pots to community gardens, schools, churches, and food banks across King County through The Kelping Hands Project.
The goal was simple: make plastic-free seed starting more accessible to the organizations already doing important work in their communities, and reduce the amount of plastic entering the waste stream one growing season at a time.
Where the pots went
Kelp Pots were distributed to organizations across King County, including Sustainable Renton, Tilth Alliance's Garden Hotline, Beacon Hill Garden Club, Elk Run Farm, Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden, Pollinator Pathway NW, Little Free Plant Library, and Marymoor Community Garden.
These aren't warehouse donations. These pots went directly into the hands of people growing food and strengthening communities, serving families, youth, seniors, and diverse populations throughout the region.
Follow the journey
Over the coming months, participating community gardens, schools, churches, and food banks will be sharing photos, videos, and updates that showcase the impact of biodegradable seed starting pots in real-world growing environments.
We invite you to follow along as we highlight these stories across our social media. You'll get to see the seedlings take root, the gardens grow, and the communities behind them. It's a firsthand look at how sustainable gardening practices can make a meaningful difference, one seed at a time.
Be sure to follow Ocean Made and keep an eye out for Kelping Hands Project updates, community garden success stories, and before-and-after growing journeys from organizations throughout King County and the Pacific Northwest.
Why plastic-free gardening matters at the community scale
Individual gardeners switching to biodegradable pots makes a difference. Switching community gardens and school programs makes a bigger one, both in terms of direct environmental impact and in the conversations it starts.
When a child starts a seed in a pot that disappears into the soil by summer, that's a different kind of lesson than one that ends with a trash bag full of plastic.
The Kelping Hands Project is built on the idea that growing food and caring for the environment shouldn't be a trade-off. They should grow together.
Get involved
If you represent a community garden, school, food bank, church, or nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest, we'd love to hear from you.
And if you're ready to start your own plastic-free gardening journey, Kelp Pots are available at Ocean Made.
Be sure to follow along and watch these incredible gardens grow.
🌱 Plants didn't evolve to grow in plastic.