HBPW has thrown its towel into the ring with the Rotary Club of Retford to help a local school ‘go green’ in the name of preserving the environment.
Tuxford Primary Academy in Newark, East Midlands, wanted to give its students hands-on experience of how to grow flowers and food in a greenhouse.
But with the cost of traditional aluminium structures running into hundreds of pounds, they decided that a translucent version made of old plastic drink bottles would be just the ticket and accepted a helping hand, some cash a little inspiration from Rotary and HBPW.
Managing Partner, Paul Withers, said: “The Retford Club’s Foundation and Youth Committees, together with the Tuxford Legacy, a sum of money donated to Rotary by a former resident, have made cash available to purchase a greenhouse frame.
A Topping Out Ceremony! Photo courtesy of dengarden.com
“Children will collect hundreds of bottles to form the ‘skin’ of the greenhouse and our staff will engineer the foundations and make the project come together, a real community effort. Corporate Social Responsibility is important to us and we are delighted to be involved.”
Plastic bottle greenhouses are not only cheap to construct – even if an 8’ x 6’ structure does need around 1400 empty two litre bottles – but they are self-watering, thanks to gaps at the top of the bottles, lengthen produce growing times because of their warmer temperature, and prevent redundant bottle waste going to landfill.
“They are relatively cheap, sturdy and easy to repair,” added Paul, “but, more to the point, bottle greenhouses also link to the National Curriculum in that they support learning with things like label writing, counting and caring for the environment.”