PERFORMANCE OF BIODEGRADABLE NURSERY CONTAINERS©
Consumer demand for environmentally conscious products and business practices is on the rise (Behe et al., 2013) and consumers are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products, such as plants grown in biodegradable containers.
Biodegradable containers or biocontainers are made from plant-based materials and degrade quickly in the environment.
Two recent online surveys found that consumers are willing to pay $0.23 to $0.29 (Yue et al., 2010) and $0.61 to $0.82 (Hall et al., 2010) more for plants grown in biocontainers.
Besides the market opportunities, nursery growers are interested in biocontainers due to their environmental conscience and interest to reduce transplanting costs.
Plantable biocontainers can reduce transplanting time by 17% relative to traditional plastic containers that must be removed when planted (Nambuthiri and Ingram, 2014). In response to industrys interest in biocontainers, a broad range of products are commercially available (Table 1) and others are in development (Evans and Hensley, 2004; Helgeson et al., 2010; Schrader et al., 2013).
Woodske, D. (2015). PERFORMANCE OF BIODEGRADABLE NURSERY CONTAINERS©. Acta Hortic. 1085, 319-323
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1085.58
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1085.58
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1085.58
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1085.58
English
1085_58
319-323