Education at Gloucestershire Energy from Waste Facility

The Gloucestershire Energy from Waste Facility is committed to using its facilities and grounds as a platform for educating local schools and communities on the importance of sustainable waste management.

The Visitor Centre supports the delivery of our well-established education programme, where our Community Relationship Manager illustrates the importance of the 4Rs, (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recovery) in environmental sustainability.

A key part of our education programme is welcoming schools and community groups into the facility to share the processes, engineering and technology involved with the treatment of household residual waste. In 2025, we welcomed 22 schools to the site and held 26 tours.

Our open days remain popular and spaces on the tours fill incredibly quickly. Each group is taken on an insightful tour of the facility where they get to see how their waste is managed in a sustainable way.

In addition to the tours, we hold workshops that are all focused on reuse and are an opportunity to combine learning with creativity and most importantly, fun! We host 4 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM)-related workshops a year for children and one specifically for adults with an added focus of mindfulness. Each of the sessions can accommodate up to 10 people and are held at the Visitor Centre that provides a backdrop to the importance of reduce, reuse, recycle, and the fourth R; recovery.

“Just wanted to pass on our thanks for a lovely workshop and a pleasurable way to spend a Monday morning…I really enjoy doing creative things like that.” – workshop participant