Cheltenham Borough Council is working in partnership with Podback, to plant a new ‘pocket forest’ in Cheriton Park Hillview. Approximately, 300 trees will be planted at Cheriton Park Hillview in a 100m2 area close to Morrisons supermarket, the community centre and local primary school Greatfield Park.
The site has been chosen as the trees will have plenty of space to grow and can be enjoyed by residents. Coffee grounds generated through the Podback recycling process will be used to support the tree planting, which began this week.
Podback is a not-for-profit coffee pod recycling service, to encourage people to recycle their aluminium and plastic coffee pods at home. The service has proved very popular with over half a million pods estimated to have been collected for recycling so far.
To get involved, residents simply need to register at www.podback.org and order free recycling bags. These bags can then be put out for kerbside collection every week with waste and recycling on their normal collection day. Residents can recycle both plastic and aluminium coffee pods depending on the pods they use.
Once collected, the coffee pods are sent for reprocessing in the UK. The coffee grounds are used to create soil improver and renewable energy. The plastic and aluminium are recycled into new products.
As part of this partnership, Podback is working with SUGi, an organisation that helps to create accessible, ‘pocket forests’ using native trees to help improve the local environment, encourage biodiversity and provide habitats for local species and engage communities.