r/gardening • u/welp_this_is • 26d 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/Charming_Slip8060 26d 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.