Helping the Environment

At Poplars we are making great efforts to reduce our Carbon Footprint and to do our bit to help the environment and the world in which we all live.

We recycle all of our cardboard waste. All of our cooking oil is recycled and turned into biodiesel. Rainwater is collected from our roof and used to irrigate our plants. Most of the packaging we offer is biodegradable. We also recycle our unwanted pallets.

Our fleet of vehicles has reduced from three to one and we actively encourage our staff to car share.

We source the majority of our plants from UK growers. We offer a range of peat free composts and our growers are steadily reducing the volume of peat they use in their own compost mixes. One day, we hope that all of our plants will be sold in peat free compost. We reuse, recycle or return our unwanted plant trays.

We use local suppliers for our restaurant and are increasing our range of Fair-trade products.

Our new Buildings are insulated and are heated with highly efficient boilers using the latest computer controlled technology. We use LED lighting in all of our buildings which is both energy-efficient & environmentally friendly.

Our staff are encouraged not to print emails unnecessarily and we have also made a commitment to no longer print glossy leaflets and magazines for door-to-door distribution.

We are increasing our range of environmentally friendly products and encouraging our suppliers to commit to good environmental practices.

This is just the start of our long-term commitment to making significant changes to the way we work. The environment and the impact we make are now at the forefront of our decisions. There is still a lot that can be done to make Poplars even better and we are working towards our goal of minimizing the impact we have upon the environment.

Each year at Poplars we recycle over 3000 litres of cooking oil, over 60 tonnes of cardboard, more than 3500 wooden pallets, at least 2 tonnes of scrap metal and in excess of 15 tonnes of waste plastic. We also collect nearly 1.5 million litres of rain water to irrigate our plants and a further 4 million litres of surface water feed our wildlife ponds. We are committed to reducing peat use and we source a wide range of environmentally friendly products. Our green champions continue to search for new ways for us to have a positive effect on the environment.

A weekly average of 48kWh of electricity is delivered to our EV chargers, saving 55kg of CO2 emissions.

We have four electric charging points in our carpark for our customers with electric cars to use.

Did you know we now generate our own electricity? We have 1038 solar panels on our roof that can generate 446kW per hour. We estimate the total annual generation will be over 375,000kWh – as long as the sun shines! Solar power has no emissions. It just silently generates pure, clean energy. Any additional energy created is fed back into the grid for other consumers to use. Our solar panels are supplied and installed by EB Solar.

Poplars W.E.E.E. Policy

As a distributor of household electrical and electronic equipment we offer an in-store take back scheme for waste electrical items. This scheme operates on a like for like basis on the purchase of a new or a new equivalent item which has the same or similar functions. Alternatively consumers can take their waste electrical or electronic items to their local civic amenity site.

We do this because :- UK households dispose of over 1.2 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste every year. This is the equivalent of 150,000 double decker buses and would be enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium 6 times over.

Much of the UK’s electronic waste ends up in landfill sites, where toxins put communities at risk. Failure to segregate any type of recyclable  material in the home will usually result in items being disposed of in a landfill site (buried in the ground in the UK) or being incinerated.

To remind you to recycle, all new electrical products are marked with a crossed out wheeled bin symbol.

We have created Wadelows Nature Reserve on the field behind the Garden Centre to provide diverse habitats for many different types of Wildlife. Read on to find out more.

Wadelows Nature Reserve is dedicated to the conservation of our native flora and fauna and situated just behind the Garden Centre. The reserve sits on the site of a medieval manor called Wadelows – hence the unusual name!

The reserve has been created from ancient meadowland owned by John and Bridget Little, of Poplars Garden Centre, and adjacent woodland owned by the County Council. The two sites, which are backed by around 150 acres of farmland not being used for agriculture, contain a wide diversity of habitats
Our compact site contains:

• Meadowland
• Hedgerows
• River
• Grassland
• Wetlands
• Deciduous trees
• Pond

These already attract birds, insects, animals, and plants and as the site is managed to maximise conservation we hope additional species will find Wadelows their ideal location.
The aim is for Wadelows Nature Reserve to become a significant community and educational resource with conservation of our native species at the heart of management and development.
If you wish to contact us about the reserve then you can email John Little (Wadelows Secretary) or alternatively write to Wadelows Nature reserve c/o Poplars Garden Centre, Harlington Road, Toddington LU5 6HE.

The reserve is open to our customers during normal garden centre opening times and can be accessed via our Plantarea.  If you would like to visit the reserve, please come to the garden centre Information Desk where you will need to be signed in and given access to the reserve. At the end of your visit, the key must be signed back in. If you have any questions or queries regarding visiting, it’s best to call the garden centre on 01525 872017 in advance.

If you would like to view the management plan for our nature reserve then please Click here.