Whittington Castle custodians help efforts for a greener future

Green Fair environmental research at Whittington Castle, gathered 50 people and asked them about the environmental priorities in the area.

The people were chosen at random and their answers included reducing plastic use, more allotments, incentives for car sharing and better education.

Green Fair environmental research at Whittington Castle pond.

Visitors also gave the castle more than 40 ways that each of us can make every day life more environmental friendly and it would help save money.

A spokesman said: "One of our favourites is: if your hot water takes a while to come through run the bath hot tap into a bucket and use the water to flush the loo. The sink water will then run hot without wasting water."

Green Fair environmental research at Whittington Castle pond.

Research shows that the top five initiatives ranked highest are: better education on how to be more sustainable (sharing of best practice was also important), reduction in plastic use, affordable and cleaner energy, reduction in litter and wider recycling opportunities.

Jonjo Evans chair of trustees and the Castle’s eco team said: "When we set out to ask people for their priorities we were not sure whether the response would simply be ‘everything'."

Green Fair environmental research At Whittington Castle stand

The Castle is already making changes, they moved to glass milk bottles and drinks in cans, with ring pulls going to a charity in Africa.

The spokesman added: "Even though we buy locally wherever possible and all of our recyclable waste from kitchen@thecastle and coffee machine goes for composting there is still more we can do. We now want to work to understand how some of the priorities can be addressed at a local level."

Whittington Castle is already planning for 2023, with a third Green Fair and welcomes enquiries from anyone wishing to take part.