Gardeners searching for the perfect plants at the Kearny Walmart garden center are in for a surprise as Walmart offers its usual annuals with a twist. This month, Walmart has partnered with Garden State Growers and TerraCycle to offer its plants in upcycled margarine tubs in Walmart stores. The upcycled pots will come from used tubs of Country Crock, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Promise and Brummel & Brown. The tubs are a more eco-friendly option as they will be diverted from landfills, eliminate the need to use virgin plastic and can be returned to TerraCycle to be used again. TerraCycle collects non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste and uses it to create affordable, eco-friendly products, offering an end-of-life solution.

Two New Jersey companies have partnered with Walmart stores in the Northeast to put non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle margarine tubs to a new "green" use -- as flower pots. The companies working with the retailer are Garden State Growers, which grows many types of plants on its 500-acre site, and TerraCycle, which collects waste that is non-recyclable or difficult to recycle and puts it to new use.

ROME - TerraCycle, an international upcycling company based out of Trenton, NJ, has been doing its best to recycle the most difficult of materials and make the world a little greener since 2001. The recycling that TerraCycle promotes is coming to central New York. TerraCycle has teamed up with Garden State Growers and Wal-Mart to offer annuals that will be sold in upcycled margarine tubs rather than the traditional black pots in which flowers are usually sold. The annuals will be sold at participating Wal-Marts in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The flowers will be made available at Wal-Mart beginning the week of April, 17.

  Garden center shoppers in the North Brunswick Wal-Mart, 979 Route 1 south, will see something other than the black pots in which flowers are traditionally sold. Garden State Growers and TerraCycle are offering annuals in upcycled margarine tubs. The upcycled pots are a more eco-friendly option because they eliminate the need to use virgin plastic and can be returned to TerraCycle to be used again. The plants will retail for approximately $5 each and will be shipped April 17 to the North Brunswick Wal-Mart as well as other select Wal-Mart stores in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. TerraCycle collects non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste and uses it to create affordable, eco-friendly products. Through this partnership with Garden State Growers, one of the largest nurseries in New Jersey, TerraCycle has found an end-of-life solution for the Country Crock, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Promise, and Brummel & Brown tubs it has diverted from landfills.