The Green Centre

Deeside Activity Park is very much a rural business, situated as we are, in beautiful countryside, well away from modern conveniences!!! From the outset, the plan was to use local produce, notably our own Cairnton Aberdeen Angus beef. This was before the term ‘food miles’ became popular.

At first we expected maybe 10,000 people to make use of the facilities, but in 06/07 we had 36,000 visitors. Many of them needed to ‘powder their noses’, and as we’re not close to mains sewage, we have to treat our own before allowing the effluent to flow back into our local ecosystem. This we do through a complicated ‘bubbler’ system, which encourages the natural bacteria to break down the harmful waste. To allow these bacteria to work properly means not using strong chemical disinfectants of washing up liquids. It also means we must try to catch as much ‘fat and oil’ from our dishwashing machine as possible.

The wooden building which forms the restaurant and reception, is very efficient and of course is built of a very sustainable material. Right now it is heated with oil, but in the very near future we'll be changing to a wood pellet boiler system, which should have almost no environmental impact.

If you have visited Deeside Activity Park, one of the first things you see is our municipal recycling facilities. Glass, plastic, tin, paper and cardboard all get collected here and recycled. The site is serviced by Aberdeenshire Council.

And finally, still in its experimental stage is composting. All food waste, paper napkins etc are collected separately, and mixed with farmyard manure from our herd of Aberdeen Angus cows. It is composted for 1 year, before being spread on the fields as a conditioner. The small amount of kitchen oil that we use, once spent is mixed in with cattle feed, and they love it.