Our Recycling Responsibility

2 Min Read

“We must think again about what we throw away – seeing not waste, but opportunity”. This is the mantra of the minds behind Global Recycling Day (18th March). It rings true for KELSEY too, our entire mission came from a desire to put the waste fruit from our farm to good use and never throw away anything that could be repurposed – finding beauty in the unwanted.

The luscious dark green leaves of the raspberry plant are powerhouses of protection. Rich in polyphenols to fortify the skin, helping fight the skin damaging, ageing effects of lifestyle and environmental free radicals such as wrinkles, fine lines and uneven skin tone.

The fruit pulp is packed with vitamin C and AHAs to boost cellular turnover, revealing brighter and luminous skin. And the raspberry seeds, this is the real secret of the raspberry plant. Bursting with powerful fatty acids, they actually contain the highest concentrate of Omega 6 of all fruit seeds, helping to retain hydration and rebalancing the natural oils in the skin. A source of antioxidant vitamins A and E, our activated raspberry seed oil (EZ Rubus ID®) stimulates collagen production, fighting oxidation and damage, while promoting cell regeneration and boosting vibrancy. Who knew?!

But our philosophy stems from our love of the land and everything that comes from it. We like to think that on our farm in the heart of Kent, we are as ecologically responsible as we can be.

The waste fruit that we don’t turn into active ingredients is taken away to be processed into puree. It goes without saying that all our cardboard and plastic waste on the farm is recycled,  but our own punnets are made from recycled PET and are themselves fully recyclable, even that little pad at the bottom that cushions your fruit! Our plants are currently grown in coconut coir, a by-product of the coconut industry, and our future season’s crop will be grown in a coir which is a waste product from the strawberry industry. 

It doesn’t stop once the plants have stopped growing and the season comes to an end. Each of the 300,000 pots which have housed the plants are removed, washed and reused in future years. The polythene tunnels stretching across the 130 acres of the KELSEY farm are carefully removed and fastidiously packed away to be unfurled the following year. They’re used for 5-6 seasons and are then also recycled. The canes that have borne the fruit also find a new life too. Once the pots have been removed the plants are laid on the ground and a machine, fondly known as the pulveriser, munches them up into golden brown, nutrient rich mulch which is used on local Kent farms as soil conditioner.

Where we can, we also harness the power of the elements, capturing rainwater from our tunnel structures to supplement our irrigation requirements and using solar power to help run our coldstores.

The concept of reduce, reuse, recycle is at the forefront of our being, striving every day to be better and continue our sustainability journey.