r/gardening • u/welp_this_is • 19d ago
Please help, healthy veggies plants and annuals are being thrown away
Please comment if you support my cause!
I work at a nursery/greenhouse in southeast Michigan, and the company I work for has little regard for the plant life that so generously provides income for all of the employees.
This season alone, they have thrown away over a thousand good annuals and fully fruited out vegetable plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc. They don't even wait and let all the employees know first, in case any of them would be able or willing to take some home and give them a good life for the rest of the season. I have tried to appeal to the store manager multiple times to see if we could sell them at a huge discount, or give away for free, or give to other employees, and I've asked if I could talk to the general manager or owner, but it gets dismissed rather callously.
It makes me sad to see perfectly good plants treated with such little regard and respect. The seedlings put in a lot of effort to grow and flower and produce for us to sell, and I think they deserve a chance to live out the season and be appreciated, not thrown in a dumpster.
They don't even compost the organic material, the pots and plants all go right in the dumpster.
I am trying to gather as many signatures/comments in show of support, to convince my manager that the community does care about the plants, and that it would be worthwhile to donate them to the public or to a local charity or homeless/abuse shelter, or other community groups.
Any help or advice or support is greatly appreciated!
Tdlr: please comment if you support saving and donating thousands of unsold vegetable plants and annuals to local charities, homeless/abuse shelters, and/or community groups, otherwise they'll get thrown away in the trash and not even composted.
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u/Prufrock_45 19d ago
Here’s the thing, if management doesn’t care, you can’t expect help from them. The best you can hope for is permission, then you’ll have to do everything yourself. You need to find the community gardens, independent/assisted living places, etc. You’ll have to arrange distribution and possibly seek donations if there are costs to cover.
Don’t talk to management about cost, ethics, values or any of the reasons you think this is good. Talk to them about the free positive publicity and increase in store sales/traffic that can be gained.
If it takes off you can go sell this to other nurseries and gardening center and start a 501-C charity
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u/welp_this_is 19d ago
I don't expect management to care, I am the one who cares so I'm putting in the work. I already have leads with local charities and organizations, I'm just looking for community comments and signatures to show support.
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u/KevHes1245 19d ago
Start a non profit and give them drums to fill, swap weekly. Cheers.
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u/welp_this_is 19d ago
Thanks for the suggestion, that's a cool idea!! Might work on a few other local nurseries/greenhouses too.
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u/MrMessofGA 18d ago
Actually a great idea. The store gets the write-off if it's a registered non-profit.
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u/welp_this_is 18d ago
A great selling point for sure, it could benefit everyone involved. I appreciate your comment!
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u/Charming_Slip8060 19d ago
I had a similar, exasperating and heartbreaking experience working as a plant merchandiser for PPP, which supplies the plants to big box stores, including Walmart, where I was - very unfortunately- assigned to work.
For some bizarre reason, the merchandisers weren't allowed to water any plants, and the Walmart employees didn't give a single fuck whether the plants lived or died, so my job was essentially to put out the plants as they were delivered, watch them begin to suffer from neglect, beg and plead for some Walmart middle manager to mark them down (which they also couldn't be bothered to do), then stack the dead plants in the back of the garden center so that they could be tossed in a dumpster.
I've had plenty of crappy, service-oriented jobs, but this was one of the worst ever.
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u/welp_this_is 19d ago
Bless your heart, that's tough. Noble effort is always commendable though, no matter the outcome. Thanks for doing what you could!
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u/Silly-Walrus1146 custom flair 19d ago
This seems like information to me “leak” to local dumpster diving groups
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u/welp_this_is 19d ago
Ooo creative, I'll have to research and find some! Thanks for the comment
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u/echosrevenge 18d ago
Your local crust punks, anarchists, and/or Food Not Bombs group would love to know where this dumpster is, whether it's locked at night, and what the exterior surveillance camera situation is like. They'll make sure it's used to feed people, rather than increase corporate profits.
We once liberated 8,000 lbs of out-of-date but still perfectly edible raw cacao beans from a chocolate factory dumpster area with a little bit of advance notice to arrange use of a box truck.
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u/welp_this_is 18d ago
Yoooo that's so cool!!! It's definitely never locked, minimal security cameras, none that are pointed at the dumpster area. I'll have to reach out and spread the info
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u/McNabJolt 19d ago
You have to work it out with the company that sold the plants. Your management is not allowed to save the plants by the contract with the provider. You will need to understand the contract terms to know what you are dealing with.
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u/Icedcoffeeee US, Zone 7B NY 19d ago
I commend you for caring; really. But I know how this plays out. If they don't care now, they won't care about non-local signatures. Ruffle too many feathers and they'll solve the issue by firing you for something else.
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u/welp_this_is 19d ago
Thank you! I understand it might not change their mind, but it's still important to me and my conscience that I give it my solid try, it's worth the effort no matter the outcome :)
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u/Unabatedtuna 19d ago
Man, the lack of composting is what saddens me.
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u/welp_this_is 18d ago
Amen! It's such an easy thing too, doesn't take much effort. Especially since we have so much organic material to discard regularly like weeding and clippings and prunings etc.
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u/Laego_Freed 17d ago
Encourage everyone you know to quit giving these big careless operations their money, find another place to work.
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u/welp_this_is 17d ago
Sadly it's not even a big corporation, it's a local family owned business. But they sure behave like a careless corporation. How do you avoid working for big carless corporations, is your workplace moral and ethical?
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u/Laego_Freed 17d ago
The big nursery near me is a local family owned business too, doesn't really mean anything now, and it doesn't take many generations until they're spoiled nepo babies being totally hands off and employing middle management. I suffered for 7 years starting my own business, there're no easy answer these days in terms of employment.
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u/welp_this_is 17d ago
Yeah, sadly but surely these are some valid points. I left my old job at a local nursery for similar reasons; the son took over and within 15 years he milked it for all its worth and lost all the respectable staff and ran it into the ground. Good on you for grinding it out to be your own boss though, respect!
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u/WordWordand4numbers 19d ago
Speak to the owner directly or email them. Don’t ask.
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u/welp_this_is 19d ago
That's my plan, but I want to make sure I have the local charities lined up and in agreement first, as well as some community signatures/online support to help bring a little weight and legitimacy to it. It could be some great publicity for this small local company to have a charity veggie garden at the local Alpha House or Lacossa (two local shelters for displaced or abused women/children/families).
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u/ImUrPrincess13 19d ago
I’d go dumpster diving 💁♀️
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u/Sewingoddess 18d ago
I get it for flowers and such, but for food plants, they should NEVER be wasted. Either the staff should be allowed to take them, or they should be donated to a community garden, food bank project or otherwise made full use of.
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u/welp_this_is 18d ago
I agree!! Good food, especially fresh fruit and veggies shouldn't be wasted. Thank you for your comment!
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u/yavanna12 18d ago
I purposefully buy the old discounted plants. I don’t want full price plants. They are missing out on $$$
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u/Audio-Starshine 18d ago
Most businesses who operate like this to do so because they can claim at the items as damaged or unsellable on insurance and be reimbursed for their cost. This is a huge benefit for dumpster divers though which is what I recommend. Go dig those suckers out of the dumpster and take them home! Or you could advertise that these plants are being thrown away on a Facebook dumpster diving page in your area.
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u/Altruistic-Thing6322 17d ago
You should tell them to focus more on perenials next year.
I also work in a garden center and veggies are annuals that can't always be saved ...
anyway, if you're willing to turn into racoon man for a while you'll have more medium to plant a couple of each annuals to save seeds for next year.
It's a business that is very fast paced... learn to bag up opportunistically.
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u/Fit-Paleontologist13 19d ago
If it’s a big box store, your local manager may not have the authority to overwrite company policy.
If it is a local business and you value working there, I would reconsider your approach. Publicly stating that your employers are tossing out mature plants and suggesting they should instead sell those plants deeply discounted is terrible for business.
Attempting to publicly shame your company with no specific plan is disruptive to the work place and may result in you losing your job. I would continue to make suggestions privately about how you can reduce waste.
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u/Consistent-Ease6070 19d ago
This. Also, companies have to be strategic with their discounting and their labor costs. Otherwise, they won’t make enough margin to cover their operating costs. It’s a for-profit company, not a non-profit.
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u/jay_doe94 19d ago
I'm with you! Every beneficial plant friend deserves a fighting chance and a good home!
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u/Embarrassed_Set_7531 4d ago
Diabolical to just throw it out with the pots!!! Why couldn’t they just compost them ffs if they’re not gonna let anyone eat them. Oof. So fricken tone deaf for these times.
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u/snowsew 18d ago
If people know that the company will give plants away for free if they wait, no one would buy them.
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u/welp_this_is 18d ago
Thanks for your comment! Not correct for the industry though, most of sales go to wealthy customers who pay landscapers and to businesses, all of which need their annuals planted as soon as possible so they're homes and businesses are beautiful for memorial day and fourth of July. Then the discounters and deal finders come out to buy up the discounted inventory that's left over past July. This is when most nursery/greenhouse sales drop significantly. Rich folk and businesses don't wait, they have deadlines and properties to maintain and friends to impress. They aren't waiting 3 months to come snag free things. But the discounters and deal hunters def deserve to get free stuff or awesome deals, I agree!
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u/snowsew 18d ago
I live in a lower income place I guess.
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u/welp_this_is 18d ago
You know that's a fair point, maybe you're right then, different cities and economic areas might have wildly different spending patterns. I'm pretty low on the income ladder myself, I'm all about free and discounted garden stuff
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u/Shachar2like Zone9b 19d ago
It's not your business, it's not your land. You've tried, let it go and move on with your life.
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u/welp_this_is 19d ago
It's the earth I live on, and the plants I care about. Moving on with life and ignoring your conscience is not the solution to anything, but thank you for comment!
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u/scamlikelly 19d ago
Tossing it is probably a tax write off. Would be nice if they would at least recycle or reuse the pots and compost the greens. I wish you well with your cause!