Pennells Garden Centre have successfully saved more 135,000 plastic pots from being burnt for fuel with their ambitious campaign during August of paying customers 5p credit for each pot returned. This meant customers got £6825’s worth of plants for free during August!

As part of their drive to reduce their environmental impact the company invested over £20,000 installing six balers across their three sites.

The investment meant Pennells were well geared up to cope with the extremely high demand from thousands of customers who were happy to see the plastic waste being recycled.

 ‘We as a company feel that is our duty as garden centres to lead the environmental charge which was why we decided to have this campaign to encourage the recycling of old pots and our customers did not let us down,” said MD Will Pennell. “I was expecting about 30-40000 pots to be brought into the centres during August but to receive four times the amount is staggering and very pleasing to see.”

Whilst the buying back of pots for credit has stopped, all three centres will continue to be among the very few channels for people to bring their plastic pots in to be recycled rather than burnt for fuel.

Pennells  say they will continue to strive to reduce their impact on the environment. Along with moving from sachet sauces to pump dispensers in the restaurant, they are looking at recycling compost bags and encouraging customers to use more peat free-compost, amongst other things.