Stores often throw out fresh flowers that are damaged or unsold. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, most flowers sold at big box stores are grown with chemicals, require a lot of water, and are imported, so they have a huge carbon footprint. Flowers sold at big box stores are usually imported and require a lot of chemicals as well as water in order to grow. Unfortunately, stores throw out flowers that are just a few days old because they have more inventory coming in.
The Flower Shuttle is a Raleigh nonprofit that prevents flowers and plants from ending up in landfills. Volunteers make arrangements with the donated flowers and distribute them to local nonprofits for free. One Raleigh-based nonprofit is on a mission to save those flowers from the landfill. If the volunteers weren’t there, all of those beautiful flowers would be sitting in dumpsters. On any given day of the week, volunteers make trips to stores that have agreed to donate flowers, which are brought back to a Raleigh church and given a little TLC. It doesn’t take much to spruce the flowers up and give them a new life. Volunteers deliver the finished arrangements to nursing homes, hospitals, shelters, and nonprofits.
Fresh flowers are a luxury that some people may never experience, and these volunteers help save them from a landfill for a good cause. The Flower Shuttle also gets donated flowers from local florists as well as leftovers from weddings and funerals. Taylor hopes more organizations like that will be started in order to prevent flowers from going to waste.
Read the complete article at: spectrumlocalnews.com