Published

2 years ago

May 9, 2024

Alice Rush

Last Updated on May 9, 2024

I love houseplants: They can really open up a room and are such a great way to fill a space. I currently have a pretty Money Tree plant that’s pet-friendly and adds the perfect pop of green to my desk space.

I’m not alone: The houseplant industry is booming. In 2019 a survey revealed U.S. houseplant sales increased by 50% to $1.7 billion in three years’ time and that trend has snowballed since then.

But is this horticultural hobby eco-friendly? That depends on how you get your plant babies, and how/where they were grown.

Ironically, green indoor spaces can come at a cost to the environment.

Like everything else we buy, houseplants also have an environmental impact. There are several factors to consider, such as “plant miles”, plastic waste and peat moss harvesting.

Here’s what you need to know about the plant industry’s environmental footprint, if your plant obsession is contributing to it, and what you can do about it.

environmental impacts of houseplants

Plants may be green, but that doesn’t automatically make them eco-friendly.

There are multiple environmental impacts of houseplants to consider. Here are a few that we will be diving into:

Plant miles: How far did your plant travel to get to you?
Plastic waste: Plastic pots are the primary container used to house plants.
Peat moss harvesting: Peat moss, an ingredient in most potting mixes, is being overharvested.

plant miles

Many of the houseplants we love come from tropical or subtropical environments. That’s a big reason they thrive indoors because they need consistently warm temperatures.

Most houseplants are imported from overseas and travel hundreds of miles before getting into our homes. The Swiss Cheese plant is just one example: It hails from Panama and southern Mexico.

Transporting plants over long distances, whether by plane, boat or truck generates a lot of carbon emissions. This is often referred to as “plant miles,” aka the total distance houseplants travel to get to you.

However, plant miles aren’t the only problem: It’s how they’re harvested that also matters. Plant poaching is a real threat due to increasing interest in rare plants and how much they fetch on the black market.

For example, the World Heritage Site is the world’s most biodiverse desert. More than 3,000 plant species exist in a relatively small area. Many of them are prized succulents that fetch high prices on the black market.

Some of these species live in an area smaller than a soccer field, so it would be very easy for a poacher to render the species extinct in a single morning.

For this reason, it’s so important the plant industry becomes more transparent about where they’re sourcing their plants.

what about houseplants grown in greenhouses?

One potential solution to combat plant poaching is to grow houseplants in a greenhouse. However, this is an imperfect solution, as greenhouses are huge energy suckers likely powered by fossil fuels.

Greenhouses are equipped with lighting and high-tech irrigation systems that require a lot of energy to maintain, especially for fickle houseplants that need a specific amount of warmth, sunlight, and water.

While greenhouses certainly cut down on plant miles, and ensure there’s no plant poaching, they would be a lot more sustainable if they ran on renewable energy. Unfortunately, many do not, or are not transparent about where they’re sourcing their energy from.

plastic waste

Plastic pots are the main container used to house most indoor plants. However, most houseplant pots are made from polypropylene (plastic #5) which isn’t widely accepted via curbside recycling services. Altogether, only 1% of plastic #5 gets recycled in the US.

That means if you want to transfer your houseplant into a more stylish container, the plastic pot it came in will likely end up in the trash. In fact, according to Marie Chieppo, Principal at EcoPlants Plans, 95 to 98% of all plastic plant pots end up in landfills.

This is a big problem for the environment, considering plastic’s life cycle is carbon intensive from beginning to end.

Plastic is a non-renewable resource that’s made from crude oil, which is extracted from the earth via fracking. It’s then manufactured into plastic in a fossil-fuel powered factory that uses a lot of energy and water.

Overall, only 5-6% of plastic gets recycled. The other percentage ends up in our landfills, environment, or incinerated.

Plastic never truly breaks down. While it is technically biodegradable (which simply means it will break up over time), it cannot be fully returned to the soil (aka composted).

That means over the course of hundreds of years plastic will break down into microplastics. Microplastics have already been found in human blood, feces, and placentas. It’s estimated we consume 11,000 microplastics per year, and the health effects of this are still unknown.

Despite all this, avoiding plastic pots is almost impossible if you want a houseplant. They’re used almost exclusively.

peat moss harvesting

Another big environmental impact of houseplants is the soil used in their pots. Often times, houseplants will be planted in soil that contains peat moss.

Peat moss prevents plants’ nutrients from washing away during waterings. It can also hold several times its weight in moisture, then release that moisture into the plant’s roots when needed.

But the problem lies in its harvesting, which requires the constant disruption and overharvesting of peatlands.

Peatlands are wetlands that play a critical role for preventing and mitigating the effects of climate change, reducing flood risk, preserving biodiversity, and ensuring safe drinking water.

These wetlands are the largest natural terrestrial carbon sinks, meaning they store more carbon than all other vegetation types in the world combined.

When peatlands are damaged and harvested for peatmoss, this leads to a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the IUCN, ~5% of global greenhouse gas emissions from land use come from damaged peatlands.

To extract the peatmoss, tractors scrape along the surface of peat bogs, which releases CO2 back into the atmosphere.

Peatlands can also catch fire, which they often do when harvested in dry conditions. Burning peat is even more polluting than burning coal and can have severe effects on human wellbeing.

This also impacts wildlife too: The IUCN attributes the 60% decline of the Bornean orangutan population to the loss of peat swamp habitat over a 60-year period.

how do you grow houseplants sustainably?

Okay, so now that you’re aware of the problems, lets talk about the solutions!

You don’t have to toss out the houseplants you already have either (that would be counterproductive).

Here’s how you can make your houseplant addiction a little bit more sustainable.

buy less plants

I know this sounds obvious, but reigning in how many houseplants you accumulate is the easiest way to make a big impact. Everything we consume has an environmental impact, so buying less is always the best option.

propagate cuttings

Have some houseplants already? Or know someone who does? Propagate some plant cuttings to grow a whole new plant. This way, you don’t have to buy anything new.

Use a small upcycled empty glass jar, like a spice container, to propagate your cutting. Just fill it with some water, put your cutting inside it, and place it in a sunny location. When you see roots growing, it’s time to plant it in soil!

use sustainable potting soil

Peat-based soil is most commonly used in houseplants. But peatmoss bogs are vital carbon sinks that are being overharvested, which is contributing to climate change.

Instead, look for peat-free soil, like Rosy Soil, which instead uses biochar, compost, pine bark fines, mycorrhizae, pumice, and sand. There are no synthetic ingredients in their soil mixtures. Their packaging is recyclable and made from plant-based ingredients.

It’s also a great idea to start buying your houseplants from a transparent and sustainable company like The Sill. All their plants are potted in organic potting soil that’s made from a mix of worm castings, coir, compost, aged pine bark, and rice hulls. It’s completely peat-free.

Plus, The Sill provides upcycled grow pots as an option, and they use carbon neutral shipping on nearly all their online orders.

You can also just use compost you made yourself! Here’s how to compost in your backyard.

RELATED: How to Build a DIY Compost Bin

For smaller spaces, Lomi is a great option because it creates nutrient-rich Lomi Earth (aka pre-compost) which is rich in microbial cultures and organic matter. This is perfect to use on plants of all kinds to help them flourish.

upcycle your plastic pots

It’s hard to avoid plastic pots with houseplants. Instead of tossing them out, disinfect them and save them for other gardening projects. You may even be able to return them to the nursery so they can be reused. Or check and see if your local community garden has any need of them.

get local plants

Look for local plant swaps or garden clubs in your area. They’re often organized online, via social media, or by libraries. Other gardeners are often happy to give you cuttings of their own plants and can instruct you on tips to help them thrive.

Do you have a plant addiction too? Will you be trying out any of these tips? Let me know in the comments below.

The post Is Your Plant Addiction Eco-Friendly? appeared first on Going Zero Waste.

Is Your Plant Addiction Eco-Friendly?

Green Living

How I Cut My Grocery Bill to $300 a Month

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2026

Alice Rush

Last Updated on April 21, 2026

Did you know the average couple spends $800 a month on groceries (USDA)? That’s approximately $200 a week on food!

And it’s only going to get worse. According to the USDA, in 2026, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.6 percent.

How I Cut My Grocery Bill to $300 a Month

But there’s hope – my husband and I eat a low waste, nutrient-dense, plant-forward diet that comes to $300 a month. And yes, there are a few major hacks that make a difference *ahem – dry beans.*

But the truth is, it all starts with a solid grocery budgeting plan. If you want to lower your grocery bill too, here are all my tips, including grocery budgeting, where to shop, what to make yourself, and more!

grocery budgeting

Creating a budget for groceries is the first step to understanding where all your money is going. Ask yourself, how much are you willing to spend on food each week? How much can you feasibly put aside?

This will vary depending on how many mouths you have to feed, how often you cook from home, and what you like to make. It helps knowing your specific eating habits too. For example, I know I’m going to want Mexican-inspired dishes at least once a week, so I prepare for that.

I find sticking to cash helps me budget better. Instead of simply putting everything on a card, I’m making sure I don’t go over budget by having a physical limit.

Before you leave the house, remind yourself how much you’re going to spend at the grocery store. If you plan on going to multiple spots (ex: farmers market, bulk bins, grocery store, etc.), designate how much you feel comfortable spending in those areas.

For example, if you like to visit the farmers market year-round, you’ll probably notice there’s more of a selection in the summer/fall months, so your budget for that may go up. Because who doesn’t want in-season strawberries? So setting aside $50 for the market during peak seasons, and $20 for the rest of the year, may help.

I also recommend always counting how much you have left after each store visit. Did you spend more or less than your budget accounted for? Will you put any leftover money towards next week’s grocery haul?

Example grocery budget for family of 2 for $100 per week:

$30 for protein (tofu, black beans, eggs, etc.)
$25 for produce (bananas, apples, carrots, celery, onion, potatoes, etc.)
$20 for grains (Rice, pasta, oatmeal, etc.)
$15 for dairy (Gallon of plant-based milk, coconut yogurt, etc.)
$10 for pantry/snacks (crackers, popcorn, seasonings, etc.)

*This is just an example to give you a visual on how much you may want to spend on different categories. But every family’s needs are different and will vary!

Pro tip: If you eat meat, try to buy them in bulk packs, and get inexpensive cuts, like ground meat, or bone-in chicken. Buying bone-in, skin-on means you’re not paying someone to do the trimming, making it more economical. Also, shredded cheese tends to be pricer than blocked for the same reason – you’re paying someone to do the work for you!

grocery budgeting: How I Cut My Grocery Bill to $300 a Month

where to shop

Knowing where to shop is half the battle: We buy our spices at a local market and they’re so much cheaper there. We also buy a lot of our foods in bulk from Costco where you can buy a giant bag of rice or flour.

It’s so much cheaper to buy dry beans than canned. I’ll make a giant batch of beans, pop them in the freezer, and pull them out any time I want. Same level of convenience, but with less than half the cost.

Hitting up local farmers markets for in-season produce can save a buck too.

It takes more water and resources to grow a tomato in the winter (think greenhouse expenses) than it does during the summer when they’re prolific. When there’s an abundance, farmers tend to sell at lower rates to entice us to buy!

Shopping at bulk bins can reduce cost too, because you can get only what you need. For example, instead of buying a huge pack of quinoa for a recipe you’re making, you can grab a cup’s worth. Or whatever the recipe entails!

make it yourself

We make a lot of kitchen staples too, like bread. We love supporting local bakeries but buying half a loaf of sourdough bread, sometimes twice a week, would cost $7. Which is $14 a week on bread, $700 a year.

Our appliances like our breadmaker, crockpot, and instantpot all came from our Buy Nothing group. We use them constantly which massively lowers our grocery bill.

My breadmaker makes delicious loaves of bread in just a few hours. I just add everything into it, adjust the settings, and let it handle things from there. Here’s my go-to recipe:

2 tsp of bread machine yeast
3 TBSP of olive oil
2 TBSP of Sugar
1 cup + 2TBSP of water
3 Cups of flour
tsp of salt

I also make a lot of other kitchen staples like broth, vinegar, vanilla which leads to tons of savings. You can make your own condiments and nut butters too if you have the time.

I also love versatile produce/pantry items! For example, in fall I always get a pumpkin for decor, which I end up cooking to make homemade pumpkin puree. It can be used in so many different recipes like pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread. And I also get roasted pumpkin seeds out of it!

Year round, some pantry staples are ridiculously easy to make, like powdered sugar (literally just blend granulated sugar in a blender) and brown sugar (mix white sugar with molasses).

If you’re in a pinch, you can also make your own oat flour. Just blend oats in a food processor until the particles are a fine powder. You can store it in an air-tight container for 3 months and use it in all kinds of recipes.

use coupons and sales

Look for discounts wherever you can find them. You may be able to download your local grocery store’s mobile app for exclusive deals.

At the very least, it can be easier to see the price difference between brands. You can plan meals around what’s on sale, like that half-priced can of tomato sauce.

My grocery store often runs sales on basic things like $2 for 5lbs of potatoes, carrots, and onions at the end of the month. I always stock up when they’re on sale.

There are also some grocery stores that sell discounts on ‘imperfect’ produce. AKA, produce that’s still perfectly good but doesn’t meet grocery store beauty standards (maybe it has a blemish or a wacky shape).

These ‘blemished’ produce items may come wrapped in plastic, but keeping food out of landfills kind of cancels out the packaging waste.

Also, be sure to check out resources like Too Good To Go – their app is the world’s largest marketplace for surplus food. You can help rescue food near you, all at half price or less.

choose low-cost staples

Meat is one of the more expensive items. Alternatively plant based sources of protein are less expensive, provide more fiber, are one of the most consumed foods in the blue zones, and they happen to be the best bang for your buck.

Choosing low-cost staples like beans, rice and frozen produce will help you stretch your bills. These items are also incredibly versatile as they can be used in so many dishes, from burritos to soups to stir fries.

Here’s a list of low cost staples you should consider stocking your pantry with:

Grains + pasta (brown rice, oats, quinoa, popcorn kernels, whole wheat pasta, etc.)
Beans (black, pinto, garbanzo, cannellini beans, etc.)
Legumes (red, green or brown)
Oil (coconut, olive, avocado oil, etc.)
Nuts and seeds (peanuts, sunflower seeds, etc.)
Canned goods (peeled tomatoes, cut vegetables, etc.)
Baking staples (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, maple syrup, coco powder, etc.)
Spices + seasonings (onion + garlic powder, paprika, etc.)

Pro tip: For snacks, you can cut down on a lot of money if you make your own, using what’s in your pantry. For example, making homemade chocolate muffins from your baking stash or using popcorn kernels instead of bagged popcorn. Melted butter and salt goes a long way!

What do you think of these grocery budgeting hacks? Let me know in the comments!

The post How I Cut My Grocery Bill to $300 a Month appeared first on Going Zero Waste.

How I Cut My Grocery Bill to $300 a Month

Green Living

3 Countries’ Food Waste Strategies: What Can They Teach Us?

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2026

Alice Rush

Each year, the U.S. discards 38 to 40 percent of its food, a stubbornly high figure. Yet, other countries like the Czech Republic, Israel, and Denmark show promising solutions that American cities are beginning to adopt.

The global challenge is similarly daunting. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about one-third of all food produced for people worldwide is lost or wasted each year. This is not just a moral issue, since so many people go hungry, but also a big climate problem. Project Drawdown lists cutting food waste as one of the top three ways to fight climate change. Some countries have been working on this for years and offer lessons for others.

Czech Republic: Rooted in Preservation Culture

Home-grown produce from backyard vegetable gardens supplements family meals throughout the Czech Republic. Residents tend fruit trees, greenhouses, and chicken coops. Many rent municipal allotment plots to use as supplemental gardens. Home composting is common and deeply normalized.

Czechs don’t just eat what their gardens yield—they savor the adventure! During mushroom and wild garlic season, families head outdoors to forage together. Extra produce finds a second life as jams or pickles, or gets frozen and fermented into tangy cabbage. Got leftover fruit? Send it to a local distillery for a splash of homemade liquor. Even stale bread avoids the bin, reborn as crispy breadcrumbs straight from your kitchen.

Apps like Nesnězeno let Czech restaurants, bakeries, cafés, and grocery stores sell extra food as discounted ‘rescue bags,’ priced 50 to 70% below retail — for pickup before closing. This connects surplus food with local buyers looking for a good deal. By the end of 2024, Nesnězeno had 1,487 partner businesses, a 132% increase from the year before, and had expanded across all Czech regions. Prague led with 239,000 rescued packages (41% of the total), followed by South Moravian and Pilsen, according to MediaGuru.

The app has been downloaded by more than 3 million users and has saved over 3 million packages of unsold meals overall.

The Czech Republic’s recycling rate for municipal waste went up from 32% in 2017 to 44% in 2021, just below the EU average. However, separating and collecting food waste is still inconsistent. A new national program for collecting kitchen animal-based waste, starting in 2026, aims to fix this.

Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem, Israel. Photo: Roxanne Desgagnés on Unsplash

Israel: Food Rescue as National Resilience

Food and water security in Israel are inseparable from politics. Leket Israel, the country’s largest food bank, pursues a mission of “food rescue” that serves Israelis regardless of background, coordinating with farms, packing houses, hotels, and catering operations to redirect surplus food to 200 nonprofits serving those in need.

Bustling outdoor food markets are traditional fixtures in Israeli cities, bringing consumers closer to the source of their food. In such busy places, edible food regularly ends up on the ground. Volunteers with Leket collect leftovers to distribute to people in need.

Leket released its 10th annual Food Waste and Rescue Report in late 2025. The report showed that Israel threw away 2.6 million tons of food, or 39% of what it produced, similar to the U.S. This wasted food was worth about $7 billion, or 1.3% of the country’s GDP. Still, there has been progress: food waste per person dropped 13.3% over the last ten years, from 300 kg to 260 kg per year. This improvement is thanks to more public awareness, serving food on individual plates in cafeterias, and more online food orders. But population growth and higher food prices have kept the total amount of wasted food high.

Leket and its partners now rescue about 45,000 tons of food each year, 2.25 times more than a decade ago. Still, this is only 5% of the food that could be saved in Israel. The Food Donation Encouragement Law, first passed in 2018, was updated in 2024 to give more legal protection to donors and require large public institutions to donate food.

In September 2025, Israel released its first national plan to cut food loss and waste, written by the Ministries of Environmental Protection and Agriculture. This was a big step toward better policy coordination. Israeli AgTech companies are also known worldwide for using technology to reduce food waste. For example, Sufresca makes edible coatings to keep produce fresh longer, and Taranis uses drones and AI to spot crop problems early.

Denmark: Culture as Infrastructure

In Denmark, people often leave free food in boxes on the sidewalk. Signs in front of homes might offer free apples or potatoes, or eggs for sale using the honor system. There are also Facebook groups in every major Danish city for dumpster diving, where people collect edible food that supermarkets throw away after the best-by date.

Supermarkets in Denmark lower prices on food that is close to its best-by date, especially baked goods, which are marked down every evening after 7 or 8 p.m. Food producers and supermarket chains work with groups like Too Good To Go and WeFood, Denmark’s first surplus food supermarket, to sell rescued food at big discounts. Chains like REMA 1000, Coop, and LIDL have also stopped offering bulk-buy discounts that encouraged people to buy more than they needed.

Too Good To Go started in Copenhagen in 2015 and has grown quickly. In 2023, the app saved 121.7 million meals worldwide, up 46% from 2022, and helped prevent about 362,000 tons of CO2 emissions. The app now works in over 17 countries and has more than 85 million users.

The WeFood surplus grocery network, which began as a single location in Copenhagen in 2016, has grown to six stores across Denmark. And a voluntary national commitment, “Denmark Against Food Waste,” united more than 25 food producers and retailers behind a shared goal of halving food waste by 2030. An independent third party measures and publishes annual progress.

What the U.S. Has Borrowed

Some of the ideas first used in these three countries are now catching on in the United States. However, there are still big challenges slowing progress.

Too Good To Go started in the U.S. in late 2020 and has been growing ever since. By mid-2025, the app was available in almost half of U.S. states, including cities such as Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. The number of meals saved grew by 67% each year. In 2024, Circle K convenience stores joined the app nationwide. Too Good To Go now also works with big chains like Whole Foods, Peet’s Coffee, and Just Salad.

Since 2020, most progress on food waste in the U.S. has happened at the state level. In 2024, 29 states introduced 100 distinct food waste bills, and 18 passed. California’s SB 1383, which started in 2022, brought organics collection to 94% of communities and rescued 217,000 tons of surplus food in 2023. Washington state also passed a major law in 2022, requiring businesses that generate large amounts of organic waste to compost or arrange for collection.

Federal legislation has moved slowly. As of 2024, 13 pending federal food waste bills were before Congress, including the bipartisan Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, which would standardize confusing “best by” and “sell by” date labeling — but none had passed. The lack of national date-label standards is a key driver of household waste, as consumers discard food that is still safe to eat.

In 2015, the U.S. promised to cut food waste in half by 2030. But a 2025 study in Nature Food found that the amount of food wasted per person in 2022, at 328.5 pounds, was about the same as in 2016. The study said that no state is on track to meet the federal goal with current policies. It also pointed out that the U.S. focuses too much on recycling food waste instead of preventing or rescuing it. In contrast, Denmark and the Czech Republic work to keep food from becoming waste in the first place, while U.S. policy mostly deals with food after it’s already lost.

What You Can Do

Download Too Good To Go or a similar app to save extra food from restaurants and grocery stores in your area.
Volunteer at a local food bank to help get rescued food to people who need it. You’ll also learn more about food inequality in your community.
Check out local CSAs and farmers’ markets to help cut down on food lost in big supply chains.
Composting at home is a simple way to recycle food scraps. If you live in an apartment, see if your city has a compost drop-off program.
Ask your supermarket to start marking down food that is close to its best-by date. This is common in Denmark but not in the U.S.
Reach out to your congressional representatives and ask them to support the Food Date Labeling Act. Standardized date labels could make a big difference at the national level.
Use the Earth911 recycling search tool to find recycling and food drop-off options near you.

Editor’s Note: Originally written by Chloe Skye on March 10, 2020, this article was substantially updated in April 2026.

The post 3 Countries’ Food Waste Strategies: What Can They Teach Us? appeared first on Earth911.

https://earth911.com/inspire/3-countries-food-waste-strategies-what-can-they-teach-us/

Green Living

Best of Sustainability In Your Ear: Dandelion Energy CEO Dan Yates On How Geothermal Leasing Could Transform Home Heating and Cooling

Published

3 days ago

April 20, 2026

Alice Rush

Read a transcript of this episode. Subscribe to receive transcripts.

Return to one of our most compelling interviews of 2025. Amazingly, the same Congressional bill that gutted residential clean energy tax credits also led to a major breakthrough in financing home geothermal systems. Dan Yates, CEO of Dandelion Energy, explains how the Big, Beautiful Bill introduced changes that, for the first time, allow third-party leasing of residential geothermal systems. He shares why this policy change could help ground-source heat pumps grow the way leasing helped rooftop solar. Geothermal heating and cooling is four times more efficient than a furnace and twice as efficient as air-source heat pumps. Yet only about 1% of U.S. homes use it because the upfront costs for new geothermal systems have ranged from $20,000 to $31,000. The new leasing model means new homeowners can get geothermal systems for just $10 to $40 per month on a 20-year lease, which is usually far less than what they save on energy.

Dan Yates, CEO of Dandelion Energy, is our guest on *Sustainability In Your Ear*.

Dandelion is working with Lennar, one of the largest homebuilders in the country, to bring geothermal to more than 1,500 homes in Colorado over the next two years. This will be one of the biggest residential geothermal projects in U.S. history. The benefits for the power grid could be even more important than the savings for homeowners. Geothermal systems use only 25% of the peak power that air-source heat pumps need, which is a big advantage as AI data centers increase electricity demand. Yates explains that the Earth works like a huge thermal battery, storing heat in the summer for use in the winter. Geothermal lets utilities reduce peak loads on the grid throughout the year, freeing homeowners from the cost of the most expensive power.

You can learn more about Dandelion Energy at dandelionenergy.com.

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Editor’s Note: This episode originally aired on December 29, 2025.

The post Best of Sustainability In Your Ear: Dandelion Energy CEO Dan Yates On How Geothermal Leasing Could Transform Home Heating and Cooling appeared first on Earth911.

https://earth911.com/podcast/sustainability-in-your-ear-dandelion-energy-ceo-dan-yates-on-how-geothermal-leasing-could-transform-home-heating-and-cooling/