 Is having houseplants bad for the planet? Let me tell you what I found. Almost everything, and if not, everything that we do has a carbon footprint on our planet. And having houseplants does too. And I can tell you, as someone who started collecting plants about two years and a half ago and really loves my plants, and someone who created a book club on nature and how to get closer to nature, this topic has become really important to me. So in this video, I'm gonna share with you what I have learned about this topic during my research and hopefully we can find ways to make our plant care more sustainable and friendly for the planet. First, let's talk about plant miles. When I was researching on the topic of carbon footprint related to houseplants, the first thing that I found was plant miles. And plant miles is the distance that houseplants travel from the nursery to our house. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere as myself, you know that most houseplants, especially the tropical houseplants come from abroad. After doing some research, I saw that in the EU and in the UK, the majority of houseplants come from Holland. But there are some exceptions. For example, orchids can come from Indonesia and light-loving plants such as succulents or cacti can come from Zimbabwe and or Kenya. According to what I've read, the majority of plants travel more than 300 kilometers before they even get to your plant shop. So even if we don't travel so much to reduce our carbon footprint, plants continue to be shipped and continue to travel around the world. According to some people, plant miles is not the biggest problem when it comes to sustainability around houseplants. This is because houseplants are usually shipped en masse. That means in big groups, in big boats. So the emissions produced by each individual plant is proportionally small. Whether you agree with this view that seeds, transportation and plant miles are not such a big problem or you think that transportation can be a very big problem, there are ways that we can reduce the carbon footprint related to transportation and plant miles. The first one of course is propagation at home. If you want to grow your collection at home, you can always propagate the plants that you already have. I can tell you the last time that I bought plants was about seven months ago when I did my last plant haul and since then I haven't bought any new plants. All of the new plants that we have in the house come from propagation. And I can tell you I really love propagating the plants because it's such a beautiful process. You get to see how they grow and you get to care for them and you can either put it for yourself and put it in your place or you can gift it to a friend. If you propagate your plants, you take away the transportation because you're propagating from a plant that is already at home. So this is a very good way to grow your collection while minimizing plant miles. Another way in which you can minimize plant miles is using plant swapping. For example, if you propagate a plant and you have two of the same, you can always gift it to a friend and swap it for another plant that she or he doesn't want. Another great way to swap plants is to join local communities on Facebook or even at your nursery or at your neighborhood. There are many local online groups that you can check out in your city where people are offering plants to swap with you. This can be a great way to grow your collection and still minimize plant miles. And if you belong to any community online that facilitates plant swapping locally, make sure to share it below because maybe some people don't know about it and maybe they're closer to your area and they could also join. Swapping plants locally will decrease the need for transportation and also will decrease the need for packaging when you order plants online, which is also a very big plus. Okay you guys, let's talk about pots. Another possible harmful thing to our planet when collecting or caring for plants at home are pots, especially when they're made out of plastic. As you may know, plastic is difficult to recycle. And I was reading that especially black plastic is difficult because the machines that separate the materials to recycle or not, especially with plastic, they work with a light that has to beam back and with pots it can pose a problem, especially when the pots are made out of black plastic. This is because the black plastic pots are very hard for the sorting machines to identify and then many black plastic pots end up in the land field, which is really not good. So some things that we can do to reduce plastic is maybe for example, find a nursery that sells the plants not in plastic pots, but either in terracotta or in coconut coil pots that then you can transplant to a terracotta pot or any other pot that you have at home. If you don't have that available where you live, you can also see which nurseries take some pots back. Some nurseries take pots back so they can reuse them and all you have to do is clean them properly and bring them back to the nursery. Of course, if you have some plastic pots, you can also save them and reuse them yourself. For example, with me, yes, I do have plastic pots. I have tried to stop buying plants and also plastic pots, but I have plastic pots from before. So I didn't throw them out when I was done with them. I just saved them in the storage room and then when I need a bigger pot for another plant, I just try to transplant them to these pots and reuse them. Of course, there's also the option of buying terracotta instead of plastic pots and I would recommend this when you're actually buying a new pot. So instead of buying a plastic pot, you buy terracotta. Now, of course, there are some advantages and disadvantages to plastic pots and terracotta pots and if you wanna learn more about it, I recommend that you check out the video that I made on pots for plants and then you can see which one is best for you. But of course, terracotta pots will be more sustainable than plastic. The third thing that I would like to talk to you about is potting mix. When I was reading about potting mix, I discovered that this is one of the biggest problems in the houseplant industry and this is because most of the potting mixes that you're gonna find will contain pit moss. Pit moss is made of the compost plant matter and this can take thousands of years to form and I can tell you I was very shocked to learn that commercial extraction of pits can remove 500 years worth of growth in one year which if you think about it is pretty terrible. Now, I'm happy to say that there are possibilities to avoid pit moss. You can look for local nurseries that sell pit-free plants so they usually use other materials instead of pit moss. You can also make your own potting mix so that way you know exactly what you're using for the soil for your plants. For example, I have my own recipe for potting mix and I don't use pit moss, I use coconut coir, perguite and worm castings. Coconut coir actually serves the purpose of pit moss. Of course, coconut coir comes with its own problems but I know that it's a renewable source so it's a little bit more sustainable than pit moss and that's why I rather have that alternative than pit. But of course, if you know any other alternatives to pit moss, make sure to comment below. I can assure you the whole community will appreciate it and I will as well. So yeah, share with us. And the fourth thing that I found is related to water. If you have many, many plants, you know that you may be using a lot of water to water your plants. And if we consider the lack of water that there is around the world, it's not the best to use so much water just to water our plants. Especially when we think of the many places around the world that are lacking clean, portable and drinkable water. So there are some ways in which we can save water when watering our plants. And let me share what I found and what I do in my house. The first thing that I found is that some people collect rainwater. I know that some people have these big barrels and they collect rainwater, it's a whole system. But for me, I would have to learn it and also we live in an apartment so I don't know how possible it is for us. But I know that for example, we can put a bucket outside and collect the water in the bucket and then maybe filter the water just to make sure that we don't have any larvae or insects inside and then we can use that water to water our plants. Also rainwater is really great for Calacias or Marantas or Dracinas, which are plants that are way more sensitive to tap water and the chemicals that come in tap water. So if you collect rainwater, it's gonna be good for the planet because you're saving water and at the same time, it's gonna be really great for your more sensitive plants as well. And of course, you can also use it for all of the other plants. I also find that bottom water in my plants helps me save water when watering so many of them. And this is because I can reuse the water for many different plants. The way that I do it is I put all of the plants in one box and then I water from the top, letting the water drain down through the drainage holes and then I can use this water that is already inside the box to water the next group of plants. This way I can reuse the same water for many different plants on that day. But of course, make sure that if you have a plant with pests, you water it separately because if you use water for that plant and then you reuse the same water for another plant, you may be moving the pest to all of the other plants. So yes, of course, try to separate the ones that have been attacked by pests, but I can tell you that bottom watering has been a very good method to save water, at least in my case, because I get to reuse the water with many plants in the same day of watering. So I can tell you, yes, there is an environmental cost to having house plants. Of course, this video is not for us to feel guilty about having house plants. It is more about sharing the information that I learned with you so we can all be conscious when we are taking care of our plants. They are happy, we are happy, and we are consciously trying to do our best to take care for our planet. Of course, if I missed anything on this video that I'm pretty sure I did, make sure to comment below and share your alternative, share what you know about the topic. I can tell you, I think this is very important and yeah, I would love to learn together from your ideas and yeah, we can continue the dialogue in the comments down below. And as always, I will see you in the next one. Okay, ciao.