Wigan's carbon footprint receives boost after tree-mendous donation to farm

Rob Southworth from Stackright, the company has donated 50 trees to Greenslate Farm, Billinge

Greenslate Community Farm, in Billinge, has received 50 assorted fruit trees donated by Skelmersdale business Stackright Ltd from the “National Fruit Collection”.

The trees, which were surplus stock specially grown for a project for Prince Charles, will see the farm’s number of planted trees soar to around 160.

Mark Tebbutt, treasurer at Greenslate - a not-for-profit organisation which runs courses and activities for disadvantaged children and those with additional needs - said that the group is “very grateful” for the offering which will help the farm in the future.

“We have had lots of fruit trees donated to us in the past, but this generous donation sees our number go into the 160s,” he said.

“It’s great moving forward for us.

“Not only are we able to improve Wigan’s carbon footprint, we will hopefully be able to use the fruit trees in teaching courses in the future.”

”They are going to take some time to grow.

“It really fits in with the whole ethos of the farm.”

Simon Greenwood, safety, health, environment and quality manager at Stackright, explained how the company’s new approach to waste management prompted such a donation.

“Under our new management structure, Stackright wanted to change the way it managed its waste,” he said.

“A decision was made at the end of 2017 for two reasons, environmental and financial.

“Until that point, all waste was put into front-end loaders and was taken off site and onto landfill.

“All of this was at a cost to Stackright and the environment.

“In January this year, we took delivery of a waste compactor and a bailer and introduced a waste scheme which was driven by our newly appointed environmental technician.

“The scheme has been a huge success as we now recycle all our waste timber, plasterboard, plastics, cardboard and electrical cable.

“All waste is loaded into colour coded bins which are located throughout the factory.”

Monthly reports from Stackright’s waste management company now show that the business sends zero to landfill.

Simon added: “It is a huge achievement in less than 12 months.”

Recently, Stackright received a donation of 50 sapling trees from their waste management company, which was donated to Greenslate Community Farm.

For more information about Greenslate Community Farm and to find out how to help with the tree planting, visit https://greenslatefarm.org.uk