Plastics

Moving Toward More Responsible Plastic Use in Floral Businesses

Plastics play a major role in floriculture, showing up everywhere from propagation trays and plant containers to floral sleeves, shipping crates, and even price tags. For growers, wholesalers, and retailers alike, plastics offer convenience, durability, and cost efficiency, making them difficult to replace entirely. At the same time, as the industry continues to explore more sustainable practices, plastics present a real challenge. Many businesses are working to balance the practical benefits of plastic with growing concerns about waste, recyclability, and environmental impact. Finding that balance is an important step toward operating within a more circular economy. Sustainabloom offers a collection of guides designed to help floriculture businesses better understand and manage their use of plastics. These resources take a closer…

Jan 20, 2026

Progress Powered by Partnerships

Since its launch, Sustainabloom has become the go-to sustainability education resource for the floral community, uniting industry members and businesses to advance environmental, social, and economic progress. Together, in collaboration with researchers at North Carolina State University, Sustainabloom has created a foundation of knowledge, tools, and inspiration that’s transforming how floriculture businesses think about sustainability. With the help from industry experts, researchers, and industry partners, Sustainabloom has grown into a thriving hub for sustainability education. Our Founding Supporters helped pave the way for this work, and now we are calling on all floral businesses to help support future Sustainabloom efforts. Every dollar contributed to Sustainabloom goes directly toward creating free, high-quality, research-backed resources accessible to everyone, and we’ve already made…

Nov 13, 2025

Sustainability at Mayesh Wholesale Florist (from Plastics Guide)

As a national wholesaler focused on floristry educational initiatives, Mayesh put sustainability at the top of its educational pillars for 2023. Among the efforts – plastics reduction. “Plastics, in particular, are tricky,” says Pat Dahlson, CEO of Mayesh. “We are really trying to move away from them where we can.” Mayesh started working with flower growers in Ecuador to remove plastic sleeves and replace them with cardboard. In addition, once the flowers are in the United States, they are traditionally re-sleeved from one type of plastic to another. Instead of using more plastic and more labor to re-sleeve, Mayesh has started encouraging replacements such as butcher-block paper, craft paper, and newsprint, which works particularly well for summer flowers. “As a…

May 15, 2025

Sustainable Solutions at HC Companies (from Plastics Guide)

Sustainability is a competitive advantage companies can have if they are a leader in that space, says Tom Marting, the director of Sustainable Solutions at HC Companies. “We all need to be thinking about sustainability because the future will be different than the past,” Marting says. Plastics are produced from byproducts of petroleum refining, and climate goals necessitate individual and collective reductions in fossil fuel consumption which will result in plastic supply constraints in the long term. HC Companies, for example, is using sustainable alternative materials such as recycled paper fibers for pots and hanging baskets in their EcoGrow containers, which are 100 percent bio-based. They also utilize wood-derived, cellulose-based compostable materials in their BioPax bioplastic containers. Robust recycling programs…

May 15, 2025

Sustainabloom Releases Four New Guides for Floriculture Sustainability

Sustainabloom, a leading resource for sustainability in the floriculture industry, has released four new industry guides to help businesses support their sustainability journey. These comprehensive guides offer insights and practical advice on Energy Efficiency, Carbon Accounting, and Inventory Management.Developed by Sustainabloom program researchers at NC State University, these guides provide industry members with the tools and knowledge they need to reduce their environmental impact and improve their business operations. The new guides released include: Carbon Accounting: The Carbon Accounting guide offers a comprehensive overview of this essential practice and helps businesses understand the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their operations, measure their carbon footprint, and begin to think about strategies for reduction and offsetting. By implementing carbon accounting, florists and growers can make informed…

Oct 10, 2024

Growing Greener Together

AFE Connects the Floriculture Industry with Sustainability Through Comprehensive Research Guides, Expert Resources For over six decades, the American Floral Endowment (AFE) has represented the entire floral community, providing and sharing free resources to everyone, thanks to the generosity of donors. As the industry’s leading charitable organization, AFE receives and collects donations to invest them, generating funding that advances floriculture through research, education, and special programming. Recently, the Endowment began a new project that aims to further that growth, this time focusing on helping industry members approach and become more actionable with sustainability. Sustainabloom is a research-driven program created to provide in-depth guides and resources about sustainability developed by top researchers in the field. The information is housed efficiently within our…

May 30, 2024