Don’t we all love a little greenery in the vicinity of our homes? All of us want some kind of potted plants in our balconies or rooms. However, if we look at the bigger picture, this might be affecting the environment.
Greenery lovers often hoard different plants. While some are local, a few are also shipped from overseas.
Fay Kenworthy, co-founder of UK-based PlantSwap, told BBC, “As many plants are brought in from overseas, their transportation represents a significant ecological footprint.”
This means that when plants are ordered from overseas, the environment is getting affected due to the shipment of the saplings in air-planes, trucks etc.
PlantSwap encourages people to trade plants locally.
Kenworthy says that ditching online shopping of plants can help reduce all the plastic packaging it comes with.
James Wong, who is a botanist and BBC presenter, says this is not much of a concern. According Wong, ordering plants is a more sustainable option than getting them from a nursery as that would take a lot of car trips, which would anyway emit carbon dioxide.
According to Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the sales of houseplants in UK were up by 60% in the second half of 2019 compared to the same period last year.
