A ‘pallet-able’ way to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Westcountry Group recently hit the local headlines for its partnership with Plymouth’s Stoke Damerel Community College. And it’s all thanks to the ingenious thinking by a group of Creative Industries students.

For 20 years, Westcountry Group has supplied the college with paper, with the bulk orders arriving on a pallet. In the past, these pallets would have gone to waste, but they’re now being given a new lease of life. What’s more, Westcountry Group is delivering extra pallets with the usual supply of paper.

To date, the wood from the pallets has been used to create bird boxes, jewellery boxes, 3D artworks and even scenery for the recent production of Little Shop of Horrors. But for the college, this is anything but a horror story.

Tim Welbourne, head of the college’s Creative Industries faculty, told the Stoke & Keyham Shopper: “The best thing about this project is it gives the students the chance to do things that would otherwise be more difficult to achieve.
It’s also a vehicle through which we can teach environmental values and the importance of looking after the planet as well as giving our students the chance to create things in wood on a larger scale.”

Murray Liesching, sales director at Westcountry Group, said: “I had a call last year saying Mr Welbourne and his students had used a couple of pallets left over from a large delivery and were interested in getting more. So we now deliver them on a regular basis.”

From its offices in Plymouth and Andover, Westcountry Group supplies schools and colleges across the South West, South and South East of England. Established in 1977, the company’s clients find its levels of customer service more than pallet-able…

Image courtesy of Frank Vincentz/Wikipedia