Leading Scottish resource management company, Binn Group, combined art, education and sustainable planting to play their part in this month’s international Earth Day.
Promoting this year’s theme of “Invest In Our Planet”, the Perthshire-based operators encouraged staff to plant a wildflower meadow and native trees at the entrance to their 200-acre Glenfarg Binn Ecopark.
This pollinator planting project surrounds a newly-commissioned and installed repurposed materials artwork called “Litter Catcher 2022”.
The modern Earth Day addition results from a first-time collaboration between Binn Group artist-in-residence Susie Johnston (artist, lecturer and post-graduate researcher) and Amanda Adam (artist and student) from Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
Their artwork combines repurposing an old litter catcher kindly donated by Suez who have a closed landfill on the Ecopark and weaving it with coloured non-biodegradable plastics and materials from the recycling complex.
Binn Group Operations Director Stewart Smith said the newly-installed structure was already attracting attention.
“It’s a clever piece of interpretive work intended to stimulate conversations about the impact of materials and the challenges they present in our throw-away society,” he said, “and how those disposal habits impact on the future of the planet.
“It’s proving a real talking point for everyone entering or passing Binn Ecopark.”
The surrounding pollinator planting project aims to make a significant impact on the local environment by establishing uncultivated habitat for wildlife through the planting of bee-attracting flowers and shrubs and native trees such as silver birch.
“This is an extension of Binn Group’s ongoing project to increase biodiversity on site at the Ecopark,” explained Stewart.
“Last year we adopted a ‘no mow’ policy for the entranceway and driveway verges allowing nature to thrive before cutting back in the autumn to promote new growth.
“The Earth Day work the staff have been involved with will make a real practical difference to our local environment.”
Stewart also explained that all 150 Binn Group employees have been taking part in Zero Waste Scotland’s Resource Efficiency Training during April.
“This training provides the skills and knowledge to understand the benefits of resource efficiency, identify opportunities to save money on energy, water and materials, be able to collect and analyse data and bring about positive change,” he said.