Heritage Open Day in West Sussex is a Ford-midable success

On Saturday 11 September, leading recycling and water companies Viridor and Southern Water partnered to open the doors of their state-of-the-art facilities in Ford near Arundel to local residents.

Organised as part of English Heritage’s open days, both Viridor and Southern Water showcased Ford’s hidden gems to increase environmental awareness about recycling, and water conservation.

Throughout the six-hour event, nearly 90 residents saw first-hand Viridor’s modern Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to discover how optical sorters, magnets and other purposely-designed technology separate cardboard, paper, plastic bottles, tins, cans and glass containers that West Sussex residents put out for recycling in their bins.

A key learning for visitors was realising how the MRF produced high quality recyclable materials ready for reprocessing into new products and packaging and the key role they all play in achieving and maintaining such quality by ensuring they only put in their bins those materials advised by their local councils.

Afterwards, the same residents visited Southern Water’s Wastewater Treatment Works at Ford  to learn about what happens to their waste water once it’s flushed away.

The works serves 130,000 people in the Littlehampton and Bognor area and treats an average of 400 litres of wastewater every second.

Commenting on the event, Viridor regional director Graham Warren said: “It was a fantastic day and the feedback from residents was extremely positive. Both companies have employees and facilities of which we are justly proud and being able to show what great work is done here as well as dispelling the myths around recycling and waste water treatment can only be a very good thing”.

Sonya Dixon, Southern Water customer liaison manager, echoed Mr Warren’s comments. She said: “It was a great platform to help people understand what we do. It is all too easy for people to forget about water that is flushed away but we are confident that those who got an insight into the processes required to deal with it will feel encouraged to use water wisely and to spread the word among friends and relatives”.

Heritage Open Days celebrate England’s architecture and culture by allowing visitors free access to interesting properties not usually open to the public or those that would usually attract an entrance fee.

It is England’s biggest and most popular voluntary cultural event and provides a unique opportunity to explore some of the hidden gems in English cities, towns and villages.