What is the Compostable Vase Project?

We are excited to be part of the beta testing of a compostable vase project spearheaded by our friends at Barnswallow Flowers in Iowa. Farmer, Meredith Nunnikhoven, of Barnswallow Flowers started the Compostable Vase Project out of need to improve the floral industry making it cleaner and more sustainable. She is based in rural Mahaska County and several years ago the county abruptly ended their recycling program. After the program ended, she also found glass was increasingly more expensive and difficult for her and her customers to recycle. As the affordability issues increased so did the pile up of glass vases. So, in comes the compostable vase! It provides a safe and sturdy way to transport the flowers happy and hydrated and once you get home you can put them in your one favorite vases rather than add to the single use vase or mason jar that accompany many flower bouquets these days.

Why compost?

Instead of needing to be processed at a traditional recycling facility, these vases are meant to be composted, and not added to the waste stream that is more robust in the floral industry than any of us want to admit. We need to face the problem areas in our industry head on and push for a cleaner industry and these requires change for both the producer and the consumer. Here in the Napa Valley, these vases can go out through your yard waste bins after the stickers have been removed.

What are they made of?

We need your feedback on the user experience of using these compostable vases.
We need honest and transparent feedback.  Don’t like it, don’t sweat it, at this point ALL feedback is valuable and helps us get the product developed so it works better for all of us.
We need your feedback to help prove to the industry that there is a market and demand for the industry to embrace this environmental tool in the industry.

What we need?

We need YOU! We need you to use them and put them through their paces and then give us feed back. We are one of many Beta testers around the country gathering data to see if these might be one avenue to increase the sustainability of the industry. While using them think about your experience as the end user. Did they transport ok? Were they sturdy enough? Did they leak? Did you have any issues with composting or facility rejection? How do you feel about them vrs glass vrs paper wrapped bouquets? And, so on.

Please Sign up for Email Updates & to Receive the Official Questionnaire

We will be asking for feedback. Please sign up for our email-list below so we can send you a questionnaire about the vases in a few months. The questionnaire will be short and straight forward. If you are passionate and have feedback you want to give right-a-way please email Hello@workhorseflowers.com. We welcome all feedback: the good, the bad and the neutral. We need honesty above all so we can asses if this is the correct avenue and use the data to push the industry into a cleaner and more sustainable direction.