Recycling 1

The Sensory Garden was built with a strong recycling theme in mind. Among the founding aims were:

• To build in an environmentally responsible way
• To encourage respect for our surroundings whether urban or rural
• To act as a living example of how to recycle, and of how designs using recycled materials can be attractive
• To minimise waste and costs
• To offer a source of ideas and inspiration for others keen to build with recycled materials

Some of the recycled materials used in the garden are:

Railway Sleepers: Donated. Once they carried the locomotives of the Ferrovia Atlantica SA company across

the sugar cane fields. In their second incarnation, they make rustic paths and raised beds with textural interest. Could also serve for building benches, gazebos, boundaries, planters or compost bins. Considered undesirable now in UK due to chemical treatments on the wood. But other reclaimed timber could work well.

Exposed X-Ray Film: Durable, partially sun and rain-hardy and just malleable enough to print Braille on with a finger-puncher. Broken bones in ghostly exposure may look odd to sighted visitors, but the text is always clear to Braille readers. Donated by local doctor and patients.