Jason Elliott — Founder of British Recycled Plastic — on circular materials, sustainable gardening, and building spaces for future generations
The UK uses over five million tonnes of plastic every year, much of it designed for short-term use. Yet gardeners rarely think about the materials their gardens themselves are built from.
(Source: DEFRA – UK Waste Prevention Programme)
When we talk about sustainable gardening, the focus is usually on what we grow — peat-free compost, wildlife planting, or reducing chemicals. But one of the most important environmental choices gardeners make is often overlooked: what our gardens are made from.
Most gardeners have replaced a raised bed sooner than expected. Every compost bin, planter or bench represents resources taken from somewhere — and eventually sent somewhere else. Gardeners care deeply about soil health and ecosystems, yet the structures supporting those ecosystems are often replaced every few years without much thought about their wider impact.
For me, sustainable gardening begins with a simple question: where do materials come from, and where do they go next?
A practical idea that grew into something bigger
British Recycled Plastic didn’t start as an environmental mission. It began with practicality.
In 2008, I was looking at ways ordinary homes could improve outdoor spaces without expensive, design-led solutions often seen on aspirational television programmes. Typical British gardens — terraces, allotments and small family spaces — needed materials that worked reliably rather than beautifully for only a few seasons.
When I first saw planks being made from recycled plastic waste in a UK factory, I immediately recognised the potential. I’d grown up seeing outdoor timber constantly rot, splinter and require replacement in the British climate. Wood is wonderful indoors, but outside it faces rain, frost and damp soil all year round.
The idea was simple: instead of creating new materials, why not use waste already in existence to build something designed to last — and reduce the cycle of replacement altogether? The sustainability benefits soon followed, and it turned out the products looked entirely at home in garden settings too.
How recycled plastic products are made
Many people imagine recycled plastic comes mainly from household recycling bins. In reality, much of the material comes from post-commercial and manufacturing waste — plastics that are clean, consistent and often difficult to recycle through standard systems.
These include agricultural films such as silage wrap, industrial containers and manufacturing offcuts sourced entirely within the UK.
One of the most interesting challenges is black plastic. Many recycling facilities rely on optical sorting systems that struggle to detect it, meaning large volumes cannot be processed through conventional recycling lines. By working directly with known manufacturing waste streams, these materials can instead be recovered and reused.
Working primarily with post-commercial and manufacturing waste also improves recycling efficiency. Unlike mixed household recycling, where plastics vary widely in composition, industrial waste streams contain consistent polymer types. This consistency allows materials to be processed with greater reliability and less energy-intensive sorting, helping keep large volumes of difficult-to-recycle plastic — particularly black plastics — within a circular UK supply chain rather than diverted to landfill or export
The process is straightforward but carefully controlled:
- Waste plastic is collected and sorted across the UK
- Materials are washed and shredded
- Plastic is converted into pellets
- Pellets are melted and extruded into solid structural profiles
The finished material is typically around 99% recycled content, transforming short-life waste into dense, stable garden infrastructure.
Gardening in a changing climate
Gardeners are already adapting to shifting weather patterns — warmer winters, sudden cold snaps and heavier rainfall. Structured growing spaces can help manage these changes by improving drainage and soil stability.
One unexpected benefit noticed early on was thermal performance. Dark recycled plastic absorbs warmth and acts as a thermal store, gently raising soil temperatures in early spring and late autumn, often allowing slightly earlier sowing and extending the growing season.
Equally important is stability. When beds do not rot or require rebuilding, soil ecosystems remain largely undisturbed. Fungal networks, beneficial microbes and carefully improved soil structure can develop year after year without disruption — an advantage particularly valued by gardeners practising no-dig or regenerative growing.
Sustainable gardening increasingly means designing spaces that cope with change rather than constantly repairing the effects of it.
Sustainability and lifecycle thinking
Plastic waste in gardening is a genuine concern, but sustainability is not simply about avoiding materials — it is about understanding their full lifecycle.
Designing products without additives that prevent future recycling helps keep materials circulating longer. Our products are designed with end-of-life recovery in mind and we offer a ‘take-back scheme’ which allows products to be recycled again rather than discarded.
This practical approach to recycling has also gained wider recognition. We were featured in a BBC News article last month highlighting Sustainable Yorkshire manufacturers that keep materials circulating locally rather than becoming waste. (BBC News: “The Yorkshire recyclers who ‘throw nothing away’”, 2024), reflecting a growing national interest in regional circular manufacturing and locally sourced materials.
The microplastics question
One of the most common questions I’m asked is about microplastics and leaching — especially when people are growing food. It’s a fair concern. If we care about soil health, we need confidence in the materials that surround it.
We work hard to provide honest and open data so people can understand these issues fully.
When flexible plastic waste is transformed into a dense, rigid, long-life structure, its environmental behaviour changes. Rather than flexing or fragmenting, it becomes stable infrastructure designed to remain in place for decades — keeping existing material safely in circulation instead of allowing it to break down elsewhere.
Independent laboratory testing under EU soil and groundwater regulations assessed our material for heavy metals, PAHs, PCBs and mineral oil hydrocarbons. The results were either extremely low or below detectable levels, comfortably within strict environmental limits, including standards applied to soils used on children’s playgrounds.
In practical terms, this means that our material is considered suitable for use around garden growing environments under current environmental safety standards.
A wider movement towards sustainable innovation
Recycled materials are only one part of a broader shift happening across horticulture. Across the UK, growers, designers and innovators are exploring peat alternatives, regenerative soil systems, biodiversity-led planting and low-impact materials. Together, these approaches reflect a growing movement away from disposable gardening and towards landscapes designed to work in balance with natural systems.
We collaborate with educators including permaculture consultant Martyna Krol, gardener KT Shepherd and voices such as Huw Richards, sharing practical growing and soil knowledge. Alongside our products, we offer free online resources — including dye garden guides, permaculture videos and blogs — because sustainable gardening should be accessible to everyone. We also support schools and community organisations through regular giveaways, helping young people experience sustainability in action.
Sustainability in real gardens
A favourite part of my job is hearing about the innovative things our customers are doing with recycled plastic. Some of the most inspiring examples come from everyday gardeners adapting spaces with long-term environmental thinking in mind. Living roofs have been created using permeable ground grids, community tributes built for NHS staff, and thriving growing spaces developed in both rural and urban settings — all shaped by practical creativity rather than rigid design rules.
One of the greatest rewards is seeing how projects evolve. Gardeners often begin with a single idea and gradually expand it, improving soil systems, refining layouts and sharing knowledge locally. The real success lies not in the installation itself, but in knowing these spaces will support people and wildlife for decades.
One donated raised-bed project, for example, has grown into a no-dig garden based on a six-year crop rotation cycle. Local volunteers grow food collaboratively while experimenting with natural plant protection and traditional remedies, guided by a forager and educator exploring the use of locally gathered plants for food and medicine.
Where to start
Sustainable change rarely requires dramatic redesign. Small decisions — repairing rather than replacing, choosing materials with a clear end-of-life pathway, improving soil health, or designing spaces to evolve over decades — can collectively make a meaningful difference. Gardens are powerful agents of environmental change precisely because they grow gradually, shaped by thoughtful choices over time.
Looking ahead
To me, success is simply a shift in mindset. Gardeners already understand cycles — growth, decay and renewal — and applying that thinking to the materials we use feels like a natural next step. I often remember a question my mother asked me as a child: “Where do you think rubbish goes?” Nothing truly disappears; it simply moves somewhere else.
By extending the same care to the materials beneath our plants as we do to the plants themselves, gardens can quietly show how living well with the resources we already have might help shape a more sustainable future.
By Jason Elliott
Founder & Managing Director, British Recycled Plastic exclusively for Gardening News 02.03.26