Efforts to reduce carbon impact at wetland habitat
MARTIN Mere Wetland Centre in Lancashire has teamed up with Carbon Neutral B&M Waste Services to manage their waste to reduce carbon impacts.
Martin Mere is a wetland habitat protected by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) – a conservation charity that aims to protect wetlands.
They welcome over one million visitors every year to their unique wetland sites.
Chris Bennett, Facilities Manager for Martin Mere, explained: “There are two main areas in Martin Mere; the Captive Collection, which houses a large collection of rare birds and animals, plus a Nature Reserve where we see approximately 15,000 migrating geese and swans arrive every year.
“This of course results in a large influx of visitors which, in turn, can generate a lot of waste.”
Sustainability is key to Martin Mere – and the WWT as a whole.
WWT has a number of different low carbon or renewable technologies in place spread across their centres including biomass (wood pellet) boilers, heat pumps (ground and air) for heating and cooling, a wind turbine, solar hot water heating and photovoltaic (PV) solar panels.
All of their sites also include wetland treatment systems – using the natural functions of vegetation, soil, and organisms to treat different waste water streams.
These enable the sites to operate in areas with no sewer connection while providing wider benefits including providing habitat creation and landscape features and reducing sludge disposal and transport impacts.
They can also potentially lower carbon and other gas emissions through no or low aeration and pumping requirements, have low running costs and reduce chemical use.
B&M Waste Account Manager, Michael Cullen, commented; “Martin Mere is a fantastic client to work with.
“Not only are they committed to sustainability but they’re keen to continually improve, meaning their green credentials are only going to get better and better.”
You can learn more about Martin Mere and WWT at https://www.wwt. org.uk/wetland-centres/martin-mere/