18 February 2019 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Martin Mere Wetland Centre in Lancashire is to work with carbon-neutral B&M Waste Services to manage its 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 for wildlife and people.
It welcomes over at least million visitors every year to its unique wetland sites.
Chris Bennett, facilities manager for Martin Mere, said; "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."
WWT has a number of different low-carbon or renewable technologies in place spread across its 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 its sites also include wetland treatment systems - using the natural functions of vegetation, soil, and organisms to treat different wastewater 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.