Siddham Jain is an urban plant stylist from Surat and Mumbai, India. His job is akin to that of a florist that has specialized in plants and flower arrangements that people can live with in urban spaces. To do this, Jain gravitates towards recycled materials. He recognizes that a majority of the pots available for indoor gardening on the market today are made of plastic, and asks, “To reduce waste, why not recycle other plastic containers into pots in the first place?”
Jain frequently shares his plant arrangements as bite-sized and engaging videos that allow people from anywhere in the world to follow along with him. This not only cultivates a movement of home gardeners, but also an army of home recyclers. This is why his work is relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Responsible Consumption and Production and Life on Land.
Jain not only recycles plastic containers such as water bottles and milk jugs, but also shows how people can recycle various glass containers and even coconut shells into different plant pots. Occasionally, he will also share home decor DIY projects that have nothing to do with plants such as making oil lamps from glass bottles and transforming clothes hangers into table lamps. The silver lining between all of his projects is his commitment to an eco-friendly Japandi style, a currently popular design philosophy known to create compact and minimalist furniture; out of natural materials such as wood, stone or even paper.
Collecting and caring for indoor plants became a popular past-time en masse during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a positive phenomenon considering having plants indoors come with a great number of physical and mental health benefits. Time Magazine outlined that its mental health benefits include anxiety and stress reduction, sharper focus and also increased happiness. Meanwhile Healthline shared how owning plants indoors improves people’s physical health since they act as natural air purifiers, citing a NASA study that concluded that the best way to improve air quality in a sealed aircraft is by including houseplants onboard spacecrafts.
However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urban garden wastes accounts for about 12 percent of the annual output of urban solid waste in the United States alone. A study published by IOP Conferences found that while some developed nations such as the USA, Japan and Germany have specific legislative bodies in place to reduce urban garden wastes, most countries have not taken similar precautions. This is why Jain’s efforts, hailing in from India, who shares easy to replicate how-tos for people across the globe, are imperative to tackling the urban garden waste problem.
Siddham Jain’s innovative approach to urban plant styling merges sustainability with creativity, making a significant impact on modern home gardening. By repurposing everyday materials into plant containers on videos, Jain promotes eco-friendly gardening practices to a large number of people, over 168,000 on Instagram to be exact. He fosters a global community of environmentally conscious home gardeners, caring for both their health and the planet’s well-being by doing so.
Find out more about recycled plant set-ups by Siddham Jain and their other initiatives by checking their Instagram on @biosphereflora.