THE TEAM at Five Valleys recycled more than 17 tonnes of cardboard in 2023, it has been revealed. 

Staff at the Stroud-based centre are continually striving to improve their green credentials and currently manage to recycle and repurpose 90 to 95 per cent of centre waste using on-site balers.

And 2023 saw the team recycle over 17 tonnes of cardboard – which is equivalent to the weight of about three African elephants, a small private jet or eight giraffes!

Kelly Winkworth, assistant centre manager for Five Valleys, said: “We try to consider the environment in everything we do and have made great strides in becoming more environmentally friendly over the last couple of years.

 

“We are proud of the great effort that everyone is making here at the centre to help improve our green credentials.

“But like everyone we can always do more. So we will always look at different ways of how we can do even more to help protect the environment.”

A number of environmentally-friendly initiatives have been introduced at Five Valleys that have helped the centre to recycle and reuse a huge amount of materials.

This includes the installation of electric car charging points, ensuring all lighting is LED and on timers and introducing solar panels.

In addition, a ground-breaking 50KW hybrid air source heat pump system which converts air moisture into heating and cooling for the building was also fitted to the Medical Practice meaning zero carbon is used.

Traders within the centre’s indoor market have also made strides with regards to green projects.

They are making several efforts to reduce their impact on the environment as much as possible by segregating waste responsibly and reducing food waste to an absolute minimum by using careful food preparation techniques and repurposing where possible.

The Artisan Baker is a proud member of the Too Good To Go initiative, which offers a back-up option for surplus pastries, loaves and cakes ensuring these products do not go to waste.

Knight’s Artisan Butcher are also part of the scheme and in addition, they also turn unused meat produce into healthy dog food to be sold to pet lovers.