\n The dome, which is being built on the edge of Royal Wootton Bassett, near Swindon, is set to be twice the height of a London double-decker bus and will be trialled and tested over the coming year.\n<\/p>\n
\n It’s being built as part of a world-first new food production trial, aiming to prove that landfill sites can be transformed into fruit and vegetable growing hubs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sustain Wiltshire says it aims\u00a0to\u00a0supply\u00a0up to\u00a080 per cent of all fruit and vegetable requirements for Royal Wootton Bassett,\u00a0Purton\u00a0and Brinkworth with domes like this, and is planning a future expansion to cover Malmesbury too if all goes to plan.\n<\/p>\n
\n Landfill gas trapped from the Crapper and Sons’ landfill site just off Brinkworth Road in Royal Wootton Bassett will be turned into heat, power and carbon dioxide to create giant inflated growing domes.\n<\/p>\n
\n These will essentially act as giant greenhouses, offering the perfect year-round growing conditions for fruit and vegetables that are not affected by changing weather.\n<\/p>\n
\n Each dome is expected to be capable of producing 10 tonnes of fruit and vegetables.\n<\/p>\n
\n The huge dome is the first of its kind (Image: Sustain)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is a\u00a0huge day\u00a0for Sustain Wiltshire,\u00a0for\u00a0our\u00a0local community, for the environment,\u00a0and for\u00a0the\u00a0waste sector,” said Nick Ash, project director for Sustain Wiltshire and Crapper and Sons Landfill Ltd.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOn this\u00a0one\u00a0site alone,\u00a0we\u00a0have the potential to produce\u00a0over\u00a08,000 tonnes of affordable fruit and vegetables\u00a0annually,\u00a0creating 130 new jobs,\u00a0while\u00a0preventing\u00a0the release of\u00a03,800 tonnes of\u00a0CO2\u00a0each\u00a0year.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cRolled\u00a0out\u00a0globally,\u00a0this\u00a0technology\u00a0has the potential\u00a0to\u00a0change the face of food production as we know it.!\n<\/p>\n
\n The first dome is already on site, and 20 more units are planned [mock-up image provided] (Image: Sustain)\n<\/p>\n
\n Once perfected Sustain Wiltshire, a Community Interest Company, hopes to gain permission for\u00a0100 of the 40m x 20m growing domes\u00a0which would be erected\u00a0at the site\u00a0over the next 10-15 years, ready to feed the local community with affordable produce.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n The first growing dome is already on site and will be\u00a0operated\u00a0for 12 months to perfect the design.\n<\/p>\n
\n Then, with planning permission, the construction of the first phase of 20 units can begin.\u00a0The completion of these will see the first community supplies\u00a0delivered\u00a0in 2028\/9.\n<\/p>\n
\n Each dome can produce 10 tonnes of fruit and veg, regardless of the weather (Image: Sustain)\n<\/p>\n
\n The ‘ground-breaking’ technology has the potential to\u00a0put an end to the need for \u2018out of season\u2019 produce\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0currently\u00a0shipped or flown into the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n Airlock doors will ensure that no unwanted insects or pollen can enter, helping to ensure biosecurity.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n However, beehives will be kept in the growing domes to promote pollination, and the honey will be available\u00a0to the local community.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sustain Wiltshire also believes the domes will enable them to keep the cost of fruit and vegetables lower than major supermarkets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dome, which is being built on the edge of Royal Wootton Bassett, near Swindon, is set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-448479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}