The appeal of biodegradable packaging to US floral consumers

Instead of plastic, some growers are now using containers manufactured with alternative materials that can be planted directly into the soil and will degrade over time, thus eliminating the need to dispose of pots in landfills. While previous studies have addressed aspects of the consumers' willingness to pay for biodegradable containers, this study specifically addresses consumers' perceived value for the containers themselves; that is, without the influence of the plant in the container. Analysis of the confidence intervals for wheat starch pots, rice hull pots, straw pots, coir pots and peat pots reveal that they overlap, which indicates the price premiums participants are willing to pay for these five types of biodegradable containers do not significantly differ from each other. Consumers express a positive willingness to pay for several types of biodegradable containers relative to the standard plastic pot. There are two distinct levels that emerged with the first tier including coconut coir and peat pots, which received ratings in the same range as rice hull, straw and wheat pots. A second, lower tier of similarly rated containers included the poultry feather, cow manure and recycled plastic pots.