On receiving grant funding in 2025:

Last Monday I spent a couple hours on a zoom, listening in on the deliberations for awarding grant money I applied for, money that comes from a 1999 settlement with a local landfill. The grants fund projects to reduce landfill waste in Alameda county (where Orta is based), and in particular to educate the community about waste reduction.

This was the first time I was ever able to hear the discussions behind the scenes of grant allocations, and it was both fascinating and inspiring.

First of all, the transparency was surprising and so helpful. We heard the board members, in real time, weighing the criteria for the grant, and comparing their official mandate for awarding the money to their personal opinions. They were so careful and responsible. There was a lot of, "I love this work, but how does it fit the official criteria?" It was a look behind a curtain that I’ve never seen before, and I was impressed.

Secondly, the board members and the grant applicants were like an antidote to so much bad news. Every single one of them is a professional working hard to reduce waste. They were so knowledgeable about the ins and outs of landfills, municipal composting, and waste reduction in general.

Also? I got the grant I applied for! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

You probably know about our pots, self-watering, made from terracotta. And maybe you’ve heard of the Orta Seed Club, where we research and send 5 unusual seed varieties every season. But how is that all related to waste reduction?

There is certainly an element of waste reduction (and cost reduction too!) if you start more plants from seed instead of buying them at the nursery in single use plastic pots, which are generally not recyclable.

There is also the part you don’t see as much, and this is what our grant is focused on. Packaging is a big part of Orta operations. To get the pots from the kiln to your house, they need to be wrapped in something so they don’t break. Most standard packaging, especially for fragile items, and even more so back when we started shipping pots 10+ years ago, is plastic: bubble wrap, plastic bags, styrofoam.

From the very beginning, I have been adamant about plastic-free packaging. Maybe because I spent so much time in the ocean, surfing, in my 20’s and saw first hand where plastic packaging ends up. Maybe because I’m just a tree-hugger at heart. It wasn’t a particularly well thought out or logical decision not to use plastic. It was moral. And it’s been complicated ever since.

Like Yvon Chiounard from Patagonia once said, “Living an examined life in business is a pain in the ass.”

I won’t regale you with tales of packaging woe, but I will give you a few highlights of what we’re doing, and what this (admittedly small) grant will mean for Orta.

🌱 I’ll be updating our somewhat neglected blog with more details about packaging so that they’re easier to search and find on the web. The bits and pieces I’ve shared in newsletters over the years will be consolidated into a resource for others who are interested in plastic-free packaging.

Do you have any questions about our packaging? What information would be most useful for me to share?? Hit reply and let me know!

🌱🌱 We’ll be hiring a “zero-waste packaging intern” for the fall semester, most likely through the UC Berkeley work-study program. When we receive our funding this summer, I’ll work with a business systems specialist to help me overhaul our packaging procedures for efficiency and to make it easier to train an intern quickly. One of our biggest obstacles is that the packaging is complex, bespoke, and takes a long time to learn.

The intern will spend the semester running all of Orta’s packaging operations while learning details of how to achieve true zero-waste, from materials to vendors, to cost and sku management.

🌱🌱🌱 Part of all manufacturing and physical operations involves signage, which in our environment tends to get wet and destroyed without lamination. However, I HATE that lamination takes recyclable / compostable paper and turns it into plastic waste. Part of our grant will be dedicated to figuring out how to laminate our signage with compostable PLA films, which I’ve already started prototyping.

In other news, this Seedurday post is late, again, because recently Seedurdays have turned into Pergola Saturdays, which isn’t nearly as catchy a phrase, sorry. 🤷🏽‍♀️

The Sally Holmes rose is already in bloom, flopping all over the place, and the pergola is not yet done! But we hit a milestone this weekend by getting the main part of the structure fitted, up, and bolted into place. Next up, the “ceiling,” and then we can finally tie in the rose.

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Happy Monday,

Anne

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When you’re ready, here are some more ways I can help you grow a thriving garden from seed:

1. Plan your seed-starting schedule with our ​free printable planner.​

2. Download the free ​Orta Seed Starting Handbook with all the basics you need to succeed with seeds.​

3. Take the guesswork out of watering with Orta Self-Watering Pots. (Find discounted factory seconds here!)

4. Join the Orta Seed Club to have 5 hand-picked, unusual & high-yielding varieties delivered to you every season.

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