Is gravel glue environmentally friendly?

As a follower of a lot of home and garden Instagram accounts, there's one product that is all of a sudden being advertised by influencers everywhere on my feed, and it instantly raised red flags with me, so I looked into it.

Gravel binders solve the 'problem' of gravel and mulch moving around your garden...by gluing it in place. As a gardener and an environmentalist my first thought was 'what kind of glue?' (ok, it was WTF! first).

If you're not interested in my workings out (aka the rant below), then the short answer is; it's PLASTIC - they all claim to be 'water-based' which is likely a legitimate claim relating to the fact that water is the main ingredient by quantity, but the water is just there to emulsify and distribute the petroleum/plastic/acrylic/polyresin that they're actually made of - if it was just water, the stones wouldn't stick together...

If you want to go a little deeper, and get a little angrier, read on.

Gardening has a massive plastic waste footprint, but it's also a very lucrative industry to be in (just ask my bank balance!) and so it's not nearly as environmentally friendly as you think it would be. There are loads of amazing plastic alternatives to use in your garden (makes a note to write blog about them), but there's also lots of money to be made by selling people short life-span plastic products that are designed not to last - think fast fashion for gardens.

Last year my feed was full of people advocating for covering your fences in decorative plastic 'shower' curtains, then there's the fake plant walls/screens which seem to be here to stay (can't I interest anyone in a lovely evergreen star jasmine instead?), and now this.

One of the brands of gravel binder I'm seeing most often advertised by influencers is Easihold, and according to the company's own website Easihold is "an easy-to-use stone & mulch binder specifically designed to keep pesky stones & mulch in place with long-lasting results. Developed, tested and manufactured at our purpose-built production centre, Easihold is the perfect water-based, non-toxic solution made to help reduce mess and maintenance in your garden."

"Non-toxic" and "water-based" are phrases I've seen a lot on the post text, along with a few stating "eco-friendly", and one brand with the text 'eco resin' on its packaging, and these phrases are also used in the replies to any comments from followers asking the influencers (advertisers) if it is environmentally friendly. Direct questions put to them; "Is it environmentally friendly?" Met with the same response on all of the posts I've seen "it's water based", "yes its non-toxic". Red Flag. Scripted responses?

But, I also noticed something else, frequently comments, and responses to questions about the environmental impacts were missing - if you don't know, on Instagram posts when the account holder hides a response or comment it still appears to the person who posted it, but it disappears for everyone else, but it does leave a trail. It will still indicate there is a reply, but the reply doesn't show. Another red flag. An instruction from the brands as part of the contract maybe?

So what is gravel binder made of?

Full info is on their websites right?...Nope! The 'what is Easihold page' on its own website, is actually mostly FAQ's about its use. No ingredient information, no spec sheet. Red Flag!

Polybound Pebble Glue does have a Technical Data Sheet on its webpage but - there's no information about the composition on it at all. Red Flag!

Seramico Coatings Pebble Hold Pour On ECO-Resin™ - no composition spec sheet to be found. Red Flag!

Likewise Gravel Hold has two downloadable data sheets on its site, neither of which contain information about its composition. You get the picture!!

Why the secrecy gravel binder makers? Something you don't want us to see?

So I went back to a web search and typed in what is Easihold made of? which found a blog post on the Easihold website titled 'is Easihold PVA?', to which the answer is "No, Easihold is not PVA glue. While Easihold is made with a high-quality acrylic resin, it is a specially engineered, water-based stone binder designed for outdoor use. Unlike PVA, Easihold stays clear, flexible, and durable — and it won't yellow or break down over time." So plastic then? I'm watching people advocating for spraying plastic directly onto our gardens, because it's 'annoying' when stones move. Don't even get me started on using this stuff on mulch!!

Furthermore, I then found what I was really looking for (on the parent company website) the Easihold technical data sheet, and it makes interesting reading. I'm still looking for the composition data sheets on the other brands, but there's enough mention of 'acrylic', 'resin' and 'poly' for me to be sure they're all similar in their composition, and that they're certainly not just sticky water.

Easihold is described as 'Water based polyacrylic binder mixture for use in coatings, finishings or formulations'. The composition goes on the clarify the ingredients as Benzyl alcohol, 2-(2-butoxyethoxy) ethanol, Distillates (petroleum), solvent-dewaxed light paraffinic, and water based polymers and emulsifiers.

Plastic.

I also noted the following in the report:

• Environmental precautions: Prevent entry into sewers and watercourses. (but it's perfectly safe to spray on our gardens, right?)

• Conditions to avoid: Avoid exposure to moisture and high temperatures. (no problem then on a planet alternating between being underwater and on fire)

• Information on toxicological effects: This product has not been tested. Judgements on the expected toxicity of this product have been made based upon consideration of its major components. (not tested. reassuring?)

With regards to the 'non-toxic' claims, while none of the ingredients are officially classified as toxic (presumably in the quantities used), many of them do reference environmental precautions to 'keep away from drains, surface and ground water' and to always use on top of a membrane or hard surface. This will be to try and stop the plastic when it has broken down into microplastics from entering the water course. All plastic will break down into microplastics, a process which is accelerated by exposure to sun and water...easy enough to avoid in your garden...

Sadly, these warnings are no different from non-environmentally friendly household cleaners - but this tells us that there is a potential issue here, albeit one that at an individual household level isn't classified as hazardous. But, what happens when it's used en-mass? Maybe by the millions of followers who now think it's a 'game changing' product that their favourite and trusted influencer just told them they absolutely must use too?

To see two of the biggest UK garden accounts advertising it over the last few weeks has been so disappointing. One has over a million followers and the other, with nearly 300 thousand, deleted my (not disrespectful) comment in minutes for stating that I thought gardening had enough of a problem with plastic without spraying it directly onto the ground. This morning a comment on another influencers post also got removed, but not before it was liked 8 times by other people. People are asking questions, anyone answering them honestly is getting silenced.

This tells me it's not a lack of awareness, it's a lack of integrity that I'm seeing. That the products exist at all for the domestic market, I think needs reviewing, but those taking money to advertise a product they know isn't good for a garden ecosystem, or in fact the planet, can get in my Instagram bin. With my PR hat on, if I was a responsible garden brand, I wouldn't be working with anyone who had advertised this stuff, so it could be career limiting too. Thankfully there are many great garden accounts on Instagram who wouldn't touch this stuff with a bean pole!

I hope this was helpful if you've been wondering about this stuff too.

Not using plastic in the garden is hard enough, so can we all please just agree to buy a broom, and leave the gravel glue alone?