Ebb and Flow MAT irrigation offers environmental benefits as well as economic advantages to users:

• Use less water overall, reducing demand on scarce water resources.
• Less waste water to dispose of 
• The waste water produced contains much lower levels of chemicals and nutrients, and can easily be collected and recycled.

Of most immediate importance are the lower amounts of waste water produced and the lower levels of contamination of Ebb and Flow MAT waste waters.  These combine to minimize disposal problems of nursery and greenhouse production.

Fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals present in waste waters from intensive horticultural systems are environmentally harmful. Accordingly, considerable attention is being directed to the management of run-off in many parts of the world.

With Ebb and Flow capillary mat, leaching of nutrients out of plant containers is substantially reduced.  There is no pressure from overhead watering to flush fertilizers out of media.  Instead, irrigation water moves in smaller quantities up into the container through gentle capillary action, and low levels of excess water are drained slowly at the end of the irrigation period. (Approx. 10% of the volume taken up).