Environmental hub kiosk opens

A cutting edge eco hub, made from old wooden seaside defences and wood from a German shipyard has opened on Bournemouth seafront.
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The beach-based venue at Durley Chine, which has been designed to be as sustainable as possible, includes six toilets and a waste management hub to handle the 2,000 tons of rubbish removed from our beaches every year.

The building reuses 45 tons of timber recycled from the seafront’s old groynes and seven tonnes of timber reclaimed from a German naval shipyard.

The main building is built to Passivhaus standards, an internationally recognised standard for buildings that are highly energy efficient and features a green roof to support greater biodiversity.

Visitors are now welcome to buy hot and cold drinks, snacks and ice cream from the kiosk and toilets from 10 February and take a seat in the decked area, which can be used for events or exhibitions.

To reduce plastic waste on site the kiosk will not sell any products wrapped in single use plastic and will use returnable cups instead – a model the council will trial to then roll out across its other seafront catering sites if successful.

The long-term aim remains to develop the venue into an education space for residents, visitors, schools and families to drive a step change in behaviour and build environmental guardianship of our coastline.

BCP Council’s Waste Transfer Yard, licenced by the Environment Agency, sits to the east of the main building, and will be used to as a holding yard for litter and debris collected from the beaches every year.

Welfare facilities will be provided for the cleaning team, who start on site at 3am in the summer months to rake the beaches on tractors and litter pick before visitors arrive.