7 Eco-Friendly Planters & Pots That Will Ex-Seed Your Gardening Expectations
Looking to pot that lush little fuchsia bush you just bought from your local plant shop?
By moving it out of that plastic bucket and into plastic-free and eco-friendly planters, you can really accentuate its beauty. And that goes for any plant!
But “what can I use instead of plastic plant pots?”.
We’re glad you asked because these environmentally friendly plant pots are here to show you exactly that.
From clay to cork to upcycled wine barrels to woven grass, there are plenty of creative sustainable materials for planters to choose from. You could even create your own made from recycled tires!
We won’t leave you hanging (basket); Let’s get growing with our sustainable plant pot list.
To avoid waste, we test products on an as needed basis. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission. Learn more about why we do this here.
A Peak At Our Favorite Eco Planters & Pots
Take a look at LIKHÂ. Tongue-twister aside, we love this fair trade brand’s Filipino-crafted organic home decor that’s as all-natural as it is beautiful. Herb your enthusiasm with their gorgeously woven eco pots.
Eco-friendly products don’t have to be woodsy, as proven by Woodland Pulse who offer strikingly geometric, architecturally-inspired natural pots to give your indoor plants a modern look.
Root your way down to the bottom of this article for some fruit for thought about how we chose the best eco planters.
The Full List Of Eco-Friendly Planter Manufacturers
- LIKHA | Visit Store
- KAZI | Visit Store
- Woodland Pulse | Visit Store
- The Citizenry | Visit Store
- Bergs Potter | Visit Store
- Wilder Island | Visit Store
- Vivaterra | Visit Store
1. LIKHA
About LIKHÂ
Price Range: $45–$70
LIKHÂ creates fair trade, modern Filipino crafts and home decor pieces made with natural materials that are byproducts from the agriculture industry.
By partnering with artisans in the Philippines, they provide dignified work that supports traditional crafts. LIKHÂ works with World Fair Trade Organization certified partners, and the sustainable home decor brand will soon become Fair Trade certified.
We love their lightweight plant pots woven in the shapes of animals—especially the Elephant Plant Pot that we can’t wait to pack-yderm with our favorite succulents.
LIKHÂ’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
All natural and sustainable materials are exclusively used for their eco planter pots, like woven organic coco coir, natural rattan, or hemp.
Supply chain & labor practices:
LIKHÂ works with Filipino artisan partners, most of whom make 25% about living wage. Having recently onboarded new partners, they are currently reviewing their new artisans’ wages to verify this holds true for them as well.
Additionally, as members of the non-profit Nest Artisan Guild, LIKHA commits to empowering small artisan communities in alignment with the UN’s SDGs.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
A low carbon footprint is achieved by using repurposed materials from the agriculture sector.
Community & charitable giving:
The company is a social enterprise that supports and empowers its workforce to transform communities out of poverty.
2. KAZI
About KAZI
Price Range: $40–$120
KAZI means “employment” in Swahili and their beautiful indoor planters are created with the goal of alleviating poverty in Africa, where they are made.
The brand sources local materials native to Africa that are easily available to their artisans.
While they have a wide range of handwoven eco-friendly flower pots and hanging baskets, we especially love the Green + Teal Woven Tapered Planter for its splashes of vibrant color to match the flowers it will home.
KAZI’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
KAZI’s eco-friendly hanging planters and other biodegradable pots are exclusively crafted from 100% natural raffia, sweet grass, and sisal and colored with food-safe natural dyes.
Being a biodegradable plant container means you safely rip them and toss them in the compost to be made into soil for future plants. How’s that for a circularly ecological garden?
Supply chain & labor practices:
As members of the Fair Trade Federation, KAZI implements fair trade practices across their organization. They pay fair living wages and also reinvest money to support and train artisans.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
The brand only uses responsibly harvested plant fibers that are native to regions where artisans craft goods.
Community & charitable giving:
KAZI uses its profits to expand their artisans’ development through workshops like training rural farmers to become artisans and teaching existing craftspeople new weaving techniques.
3. Woodland Pulse
About Woodland Pulse
Price Range: $20–$30
“Environmentally Focused; Architecturally Inspired.”
If bold and geometric is your style, look no further than Etsy shop Woodland Pulse’s handmade, modern, eco-friendly pots for plants best suited to smaller indoor plants like succulents and herbs.
Not much of a green thumb?
The Geometric Mini Planter is the perfect sustainable indoor plant pot for a tough-to-kill mini-cactus.
Woodland Pulse’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
All of Woodland Pulse eco-friendly planter pots are handcrafted from recycled wood fibers and biodegradable corn byproducts.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Everything is handmade by owner Wally in Washington D.C., and planter materials are consciously sourced.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Through Stripe Climate, the brand donates 1% of all profits to carbon removal. In addition, Etsy carbon offsets all shipping of items sold through their renewable energy-powered platform.
Also available on Woodland Pulse
4. The Citizenry
About The Citizenry
Price Range: $65–$300
Be a citizen of the world and shop The Citizenry for globally inspired home decor and decorative environmentally friendly planters made with artisans speckled across the globe.
Handcrafted in Mexico, we especially adore their splurge-worthy and architecturally stylish Cantaro Pots, which are crafted from burnished clay and set on a black steel base. Each pot takes three whole weeks to make!
The Citizenry’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The Citizenry’s sustainable plant pots are crafted from eco-friendly materials like tikal wood, clay, ceramic, or glass.
Supply chain & labor practices:
The Citizenry’s items are all ethically made in artisan workshops across Japan, Mexico, India, and a number of African countries. All fair trade practices are audited by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO).
The Citizenry pays 2x the fair trade wage requirements, plus they offer entrepreneurship grants to help artisans grow their small businesses.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
In contrast to fast-decor giants like Ikea or Target, The Citizenry is of the “slow fashion” mindset, creating limited run, handcrafted items with the hope of supporting communities and sustainability worldwide.
Community & charitable giving:
10% of all company profits are invested back into the artisan communities they work with.
5. Bergs Potter
About Bergs Potter
Price Range: $25–$200
Since 1942, Bergs Potter has provided exquisite terracotta plant pots made in Italy, designed in Denmark, and created to last with both indoor and outdoor use.
Each natural plant pot by Bergs Potter feature the perfect drainage hole design to give roots room to breathe, and their superior clay construction absorbs excess water to maintain the moisture your plants require.
We especially love the Julie Pot 021 for its warm terracotta color, superb craftsmanship, simplicity, and elegance.
Bergs Potter’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Using one singular sustainable material, planters are exclusively from sustainably sourced Tuscan Galestro clay, famous for its terracotta hue and durability.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Bergs Potter continues to work with the same family-owned clay workshop in Italy and helps uphold the Tuscany region’s ancient pottery crafting practices.
Their time-honored commitment to quality, heritage craftsmanship is at the core of their respect for workers, customers, and the planet.
6. Wilder Island
About Wilder Island
Price Range: $50–$100
Wilder Island is an Etsy-based shop that provides sustainable upcycled home decor and large eco-friendly garden planters ideal for outdoor use.
After observing how many materials go unused from construction sites, founder Anthony Wilder contacted home builders to turn these scraps into eco pots for plants.
The store offers a wide range of handmade wooden planters, like the XL Big Cross Buck Planter, available in four different colors.
Wilder Island’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
All materials used are natural, upcycled wood and/or glass.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Everything is sourced and handcrafted by the company’s founder, Anthony, at his workshop in North Carolina.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
By repurposing materials from construction sites and other salvaged locally-eschewed materials that would otherwise go to waste, Wilder Island is giving new life to otherwise landfill-bound materials.
7. VivaTerra
About VivaTerra
Price Range: $20–$400
Love the earth with VivaTerra’s impressive range of both sustainable indoor plant pots and eco-friendly outdoor planters.
Everything the brand sells is sourced from a sizable network of global artisans, with styles and offerings ranging from the adorably unique Ceramic Koi Fish wall hanging planter to the rustic, repurposed Wine Barrel Planters.
VivaTerra’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
VivaTerra offers countless options from many sustainable brands, so the planter materials used are vast, with most being eco-friendly, recyclable, or compostable.
Common materials include ceramic clay, natural rocks, glass, recycled metal, reclaimed or responsibly sourced woods (like an old wine barrel), recyclable metals like brass, or woven grass biodegradable planters.
Supply chain & labor practices:
VivaTerra is vetted for strict ethical criteria and fair trade practices as an official Good Trade partner.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Customers have the option of “climate-friendly shipping” for just $1 at checkout. Carbon offsets are done in partnership with TerraPass.
Community & charitable giving:
VivaTerra features the VivaHeart program, to help make a positive impact on the planet with organizations that help alleviate hunger and conserve the environment.
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What To Do With Old Plant Pots
Especially when it comes to outdoor pots, weathering can occur and pots inevitably break.
Fortunately, there are numerous uses for plant pots that don’t involve permanently planting them in a landfill:
- Fix it! Silicone cake or cement adhesive can create the watertight seal needed to make minor broken pots like new.
- Learn how to make eco-friendly planters from old broken pots, like making a mosaic pot using broken clay or terracotta pieces.
- Turn the pot on its side for a “wabi sabi” inspired planter.
- Use old broken pieces in the bottom of an eco pot for extra drainage.
- Use pieces with succulents to create a small succulent garden… or better yet, a fairy garden.
- Incorporate terracotta and clay pieces into your eco-friendly landscaping.
- Use terracotta for mulching.
As for nursery pots (as in, the small plastic seedling pots most garden centers sell plant starts in), turn those environmental nightmares into more eco-friendly nursery pots with these tips:
- Return them to a local greenhouse or nursery for reuse.
- Save them for seeding your own garden next year.
- Use to shake up and disperse plant fertilizer or to scoop soil
- Turn the entire pot upside down and repurpose as a lightweight filler for the bottom of your eco-friendly pot
How We Found The Most Sustainable Planters
What are the most eco-friendly plant pots, and why do they (plant) matter?
Sustainable gardening is crucial, given the world already has a scourge of plastic waste and chemical pollution to contend with.
Up to 90% of microplastics remain in sewage sludge, for example, which is then often used with fertilizer for agriculture. This only adds to the microplastic crisis that harms humans, animals, aquatic life, and ecosystems.
That said, let’s ditch the plastic and opt for eco-friendly green gardens. To keep the “eco” in “garden decoration,” we looked for the following sustainable and ethical fashion criteria in our sustainable plant pots—they dress up our plants, after all!
Materials:
We want natural, renewable, and/or repurposed materials, like reclaimed wood or recycled plastic. Of the earth, for the earth, for the good of our plants and nature.
If wood is used, we like reclaimed wood and/or that with sustainable forestry certifications, like Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) also help to ensure materials are sustainably harvested.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Here, we’re looking for transparent, ethical, fair trade, supply chains and at least a living wage for artisans or workers, ideally backed by manufacturing certifications which help grow our faith that companies aren’t greenwashing our green gardening efforts.
- Certifications: World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), Fair Trade Federation, Fair Trade, B Corporation
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Traditional artisanal practices tend to have a lower impact on the environment, which is a sustainability plus.
In addition, we like when there is a carbon offset program and shipping in recycled materials.
Community & charitable giving:
Some brands we feature are simply too small for this, but we love to garden with items that also give back to our local and global communities.
Final Thoughts On Eco Planters
Eat, drink, and be rosemary with the best eco-friendly plant pots out there!
Gardening is meant to spread love, so ditch the plastic pots and opt for natural or recycled plant pots (and any other garden recycling ideas) to elevate your garden green-thumb while minimizing the environmental damage from plastic.
Any one of these planters (or these growing kits) is sure to turnip the volume of your outdoor garden or house plant collection.
So please, don’t moss around: help your friends and family make their gardens plastic-free and a bit more sustainable by sharing this article when they ask “How do you make an eco-friendly planter?”
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