Environmental & Peat Policy

Environmental Policy

Waresley Park has been operating as a garden centre for nearly 50 years and during that time we have seen many changes in the environment. We believe that we have a duty to our staff and customers to do whatever we can to help minimize the effect that we have on the environment.

Where possible we only use resources that are reusable, recyclable or renewable. We limit our range of wood products and only sell teak from well managed plantations and wooden arbors from AFK products who are committed to reducing their own carbon footprint, planting numerous trees to offset some of their carbon emissions and recycling nearly all of their waste products including plastic, wood and metal. All their wood is also FSC certified.

Zest 4 leisure who supply most our outdoor wood products also use FSC certified wood.

All the pots we use in our Nursery are recyclable and many of our suppliers also use coloured pots which are kerb side recyclable.

We have increased our recycling which now includes cardboard, paper and glass and we re-use as many items around the site as possible.

We have re-introduced growing a large proportion of our bedding plants to assist cutting back our carbon footprint.

We use local suppliers, farmers and growers whenever there is an opportunity. Over 90% of the plants we stock are English grown and 75% are grown within 100 miles of the garden centre.

We support local charitable groups, schools and other groups throughout the year through providing talks, raffle prizes and monetary donations.

If customers require a carrier bag when they make their purchase, we now supply bio-degradable versions. There is now a 10p charge per bag.

Our plants are all watered by hand to ensure the correct amount of water is given to each plant with out using wasteful systems such as irrigation. The use and storage of water will be considered with any future development projects at the centre.

Continue to put plants at the forefront of our business. Plants are such an important tool in our daily sense of wellbeing and should be promoted as such, giving everyone the chance to create their own area of green space.

Peat Policy

At Waresley Park we believe that we have a responsibility to offer our customers the best range of suitable growing media so that they can make an informed choice when purchasing compost.

We still need to remember and remind our customers the impact that we can all have on the environment through our choices and that these choices can have a positive or negative effect on the environment.

All our compost meets with the HTA’s peat sourcing policy initiative. We have now sourced a sheep wool and bracken compost which we believe is probably the best peat free alternative on the market to date.

Several of our suppliers have made the change to peat free already while others are growing some peat free ranges for 22 and most have reduced peat content in their compost mixes.

We plan to be completely peat free in our own onsite nursery by 2023.