Meet the Grower Who Said Yes First

Paul from Norana Lilies in Te Kauwhata has been growing flowers since 1991. Thirty-six years in the New Zealand industry, with Dutch roots that go back to his father who grew flowers in the Netherlands.

Until recently he was one of New Zealand's biggest lily and tulip growers meaning a lot of flowers, but also a lot of plastic to protect them on their journey to the end customer.

Over the last five years, Norana Lilies has been on a journey to find the most sustainable packaging for their flowers. They switched to paper first, before realising that paper in landfill produces methane, a greenhouse gas more than 25 times more potent than CO2. That led Paul to 100% recycled plastic sleeves. When collected in a closed loop system where the material is recycled and remanufactured, it's a better solution than paper ever was.

Three years ago he became the first flower grower in New Zealand to make that switch.

“Ignoring the facts doesn’t solve problems and thinking it is too hard is the easy way out. If we don’t start nothing will change, all problems get solved by someone taking the first step.”

For Paul, the change was straightforward. Same sleeves, same process, similar cost. The only difference is the plastic is made from 100% recycled material which means no new plastic needs to be produced to protect his flowers.

“The switch is simply ordering a different sleeve, we are following what is already common practice in Europe”

Change is never easy, especially when you're the first one. But that's exactly why Paul's decision matters. Every grower who switches makes it easier for the next one to follow. The loop only works when the whole industry is in it and someone has to go first.

“We need to take responsibility for waste issues and depleting resources caused by our way of trading flowers, using recycled sleeves is an easy step to become more sustainable as an industry”

Norana Lilies has shown it's possible. We need more growers to walk alongside us to change how our industry deals with plastic waste.

We'd love to have you in the loop. Email: yasmin@theflowerloop.com