Virtual Booth

In modern agriculture, farmers regularly use plastic plant pots for seeding & transplanting activities because they’re convenient but it all comes with a price. Agricultural plastic products that are jettisoned negligently will contaminate soils with microplastics. Plant pots are made of High or Low Density Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) which are Non-Biodegradable plastic polymers. Moreover, plastic plant pots are single-use and have a very short life cycle and plastics will be disposed in large volumes constantly, when damaged, degraded or discarded. Research by the UN Environment Program, also shows that plant pots tend to have direct contact with soil & plants and are also sources of microplastic and is the massive production of horticultural waste. Horticultural waste consists of peels, seeds, and other inedible portions of vegetables and fruits. These wastes show magnificent potentiality of re-utilization as they're rich sources of various useful organic compounds. Unfortunately, sights of these horticultural wastes being dumped. So, how can we resolve both the issues? For the unsustainable plastic plant pots mentioned earlier, the best solution would be to redesign them by replacing plastic with biodegradable materials. As for the horticultural waste, we can recycle them into new useful products. Thus, we combined both solutions proposed to form one holistic solution which is to produce plant pots made of biodegradable organic materials obtained from horticultural waste. We selected 3 types of horticultural waste as the main ingredients, Durian husks, Sugarcane Bagasse and Coconut coir to create the biodegradable pot. The pot is proven to not form microplastics that pollute soils, reduce plastic waste generated from agricultural activities and not harm plant’s health as well. This product can serve as a good soil fertilizer, ease the transplanting process of small plants and reduce energy.