Sustainability Series 08: Floral Foam & Why I never use it
Floral Foam… it’s a single use plastic, no matter what marketing label it’s packaged up with. It’s also a floral mechanic, used to hold flowers in position and provide them with a water source.
It’s toxic to marine life & non biodegradable. And a florist cannot title themselves as ‘sustainable’ if they continue to use in their designs (regardless if it’s an ‘eco-friendly’ version).
At Bryonia, I’ve never created any of my flower designs aided by floral foam, and our creations have always been made using alternative, earth conscious methods. But I have witnessed it’s remaining prevalence in the industry, through freelancing, conversations and even in training, so for that reason this month’s Sustainability Series is all about Floral Foam & why I never use it.
This Journal entry is here to help with education, and support in choosing what products (or none) might be right for you. To others in the industry, this entry is purely to aid conscious consumption, and I do not wish to place disrespect on your choices to either stock, or not stock any mentioned products.
At this critical point, whether a supplier or customer, we need to question the environmental impact we’re making and it's science we need to go to make these choices.
Introduction to Floral Foam
Floral foam was invented in the 1950’s by Smithers-Oasis. It was created as a bi-product of other industries and was used by florists due to it’s ability to retain water and hold up to 50x it’s own weight. It’s cheap to buy and can be easily cut into shape, so essentially it can be manipulated & placed inside any vessel. But what is it actually made of?
“Floral foam is essentially plastic. It’s a petroleum-derived product, meaning it comes from a non-renewable resource. And it contains formaldehyde and carbon black.” - Pollen, 2018
Similar to house insulation foam, Floral Foam will eventually and very slowly break down or ‘degrade’ when treated in specific ways, but these plastics will never truly vanish. Eventually they will become ‘microplastics’, which are extremely harmful as they are dispersed into our natural environment much more easily.
I’m no scientist, so if you’d like to find out more about the origins of flower foam and it’s chemical make up, then I’d recommend some further reading of this article.
But it’s not really a Big problem anymore, is it?
#NOFLORALFOAM is a movement that has been present for a number of years. Many florists and growers champion using foam free methods. Sustainable mechanics are more readily available & prevalent than ever before (at least in my experience of the UK flower world).
But floral foam is still everywhere, up and down the country, used in so many weddings & installations, and globally it remains a huge problem.
With a first hand insight into the floristry world, it’s a little crazy to me that foam is still being used, especially with all the fully justified, bad press it receives.
I’ve seen bricks of it coming in and out of venues, colleges still teaching how to use it it as a method of floristry, plus many florists peppering their branding with sustainable messaging, but essentially greenwashing the hell out of us all.
And for that reason, the importance of educating customers and other florists is crucial.
I’ve so often heard ‘oh but we don’t have time for sustainable mechanics’ or ‘this is quicker’ or ‘it’s impossible without foam’.
THIS IS NOT THE CASE.
Would you like to find out more about designing with sustainable mechanics? Keep reading…
But there’s new ‘natural’ bio foams right?
“It’s alright, we only use the biodegradable one”
But that stuff is still made from horrible plastics.
Even worse, it disintegrates much more easily than the original product, producing methane, carbon dioxide & microplastics.
“In landfill this is one issue, but it is the presence of these micro-plastics in the water that foam is soaked in that is the really worrying issue, as that is poured down the drain and eventually makes its way to the sea, adding the horrific issue of micro-plastics to the marine environment.” - Shane Connolly, 2018
It looks like we can’t rely on Oasis to stop creating their Floral Foam products, and continuing to place profit over planet, so instead we can educated ourselves & our customers on what’s actually inside, and the alternatives we can use.
How do i create with sustainable mechanics instead?
You honestly don’t need floral foam. Put simply, if it’s ‘impossible’ without it, then change the design.
Look at @floribundaroseflorists incredible handbook ‘A Guide to Floral Mechanics’ or follow @sustainablechurchflowers for more ideas on sustainable mechanics.
Follow the hashtags:
#nofloralfoam
#foamfree
#sustainablefloristry
& join the Sustainable Floristry facebook group here.
a more sustainable future
We need to teach foam free mechanics at colleges, schools and within floristry education.
We need to ban floral foam at all venues, events and competitions (hats off to RHS for going foam free).
We need to share our tips, wisdom and techniques for foam free mechanics.
We need to refuse to purchase floral foam, greenwashed dupes, or other replica products.
We need to unite against floral foams existance.
And you could also look to…
Enquire with Bryonia for seasonal, foam free flowers.
Every single design we create is conscious, with sustainability at it’s core, and lead by nature.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baHN1xN-gFA
https://www.sustainablefloristry.org/blog-index/aboutfloralfoam
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14620316.2014.11513046
https://pollenfloraldesign.com/blog/why-i-gave-up-floral-foam/
