PRESS RELEASE March 2014 Sparsholt College announce partnership for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2014 The Woodhorn Group, a family run business based near Chichester, has joined forces with one of the UK leading colleges for the land and environment, Sparsholt College Hampshire and global packaging company Huhtamaki for the 2014 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Sparsholt College Horticulture students have designed and will be building a sustainable themed garden in compost produced by The Woodhorn Group. The compost has been generated from the recycling of Huhtamaki’s environmentally friendly disposable cups, BioWare, which all the staff and students at the College have been using since last year. Plants for RHS Chelsea are currently being grown in the Woodhorn produced compost before they are planted into the garden which has been inspired by Huhtamaki’s manufacturing process and green credentials. The entire garden will have a truly environmental and sustainable theme. Horticulture lecturer Chris Bird, who is leading the 21 Extended Diploma students said: “Naturally we are already very environmentally aware and conscientious here at Sparsholt and our students have become quite the recycling champions around the College as part of this project. On a greater scale tough, they have also seen through this new partnership with The Woodhorn Group and Huhtamaki how two very different organisations, linked by common values, are playing a significant role in the manufacture of future friendly products which can be recycled and therefore re-used.” A visit to Huhtamaki’s factory in Gosport inspired much of the student’s design for the garden. The many production processes, the speed and efficiency of the machines and importance of recycling all influenced the students as they collectively came up with creative ideas for the exhibit. As 17-year student John Monger commented: “The visit to Huhtamaki showed me how diverse the industry is which gave me more of an idea how to design the garden.” He also observed: “Recycling is very important to the horticulture industry as it enables us to work with environmentally friendly materials.” Fellow student Simon Walsha was very inspired by the Huhtamaki visit, as he said: “Big businesses can be genuinely environmentally aware.” The Horticulture students also paid a visit to The Woodhorn Groups Waste Management facility in Chichester. Here they gained a greater understanding of the recycling process and saw how disposable cups can gain a new life in the form of compost. Morgan Davies, Waste Recycling Manager for The Woodhorn Group said: “The partnership with Huhtamaki and Sparsholt College has been a great opportunity to prove that a manufactured biodegradable product can be effectively recycled into a usable, quality material that is not only 100% natural, but has a genuine benefit as a soil conditioner and improver. Hosting Sparsholt College at our composting facility offered not only an excellent chance to introduce the horticulture students to the processes involved in manufacture, but showed them how efficiently the loop can be closed. They now understand every aspect of the partnership from cup manufacture to final recycling and production of the compost. It gave them a real insight into how sustainable and environmentally friendly compost production can be.” Sparsholt College Hampshire has a long history of Chelsea medal success achieving 5 Gold medals, 3 Silver-gilt medals, 4 Silver medals, 3 Bronze medals since 1998.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:13:36 +0000
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