BY SUSANNAH RICE
Huhtamaki, the UK’s leading packaging and disposables manufacturer, has announced its sponsorship of Sparsholt College Hampshire’s 2014 RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden entry. The College has a long history of RHS Chelsea Flower Show medal success,achieving 5 Gold medals, 3 Silver-gilt medals, 4 Silver medals and 3 Bronze medals since 1998. Working in partnership with the College to create a themed garden with a strong environmental message, Huhtamaki hopes the entry will alert visitors to the merits of sustainability, composting and waste recycling.
Huhtamaki’s environmentally sustainable BioWare foodservice packaging range has been the key motivation for the garden, with the manufacturing process and green credentials inspiring the design and construction. What’s more, plants for the exhibit are being grown in compost created from the BioWare range.
Elements of the garden design are drawn from the manufacturing process and supply chain of the cups, from seedling to disposal.
A visit to Huhtamaki’s factory in Gosport informed much of the student’s design for the garden. The production processes, speed and efficiency of the machines and importance of recycling and composting all influenced the students as they collectively came up with creative ideas for the exhibit.
Horticulture lecturer Chris Bird, who is leading the twenty one Extended Diploma students, said: “Naturally we are already very environmentally aware and conscientious here at Sparsholt, but through this new partnership with Huhtamaki, our horticulture students have seen how global packaging companies are also playing a significant role in designing and manufacturing future friendly products and disposal.”
It is not just horticulture students who have been involved in the project: the students and staff on Sparsholt campus have all been playing their part. Since December, all hot drinks sold in the College restaurant and bar have been served in BioWare paper cups. The cups are subsequently collected and taken off-site for composting.
According to Huhtamaki’s UK Foodservice Sales and Marketing Director, John Young, it was ‘a real honour to be involved in such a prestigious event as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show’.
“We’re very proud of our BioWare products and see sustainability as the key to our future’, John said. ‘This project is a fantastic way to illustrate the benefits and importance of recycling and composting and it shows how we’ve managed to ‘close the loop’ by composting our cups, and then using the compost to grow the very plants that will be used to make more cups in the future. By partnering with Sparsholt College Hampshire we are showing that this process is possible even to the very highest standards of horticulture.”
