WANTSUM CITRUS

Wantsum Citrus is an experimental orange orchard in Manston, Kent, equipped with innovative inflatable greenhouse technology and optimized plant growth in times of food insecurity for consumers and farmers alike. Citrus strikes to break the dependency of food imports into the UK and build a local economy run by the people of Manston. The project rethinks food waste, in specific fruit peels, into valuable upcycled materials such as orange paper, packing material, cellulose-based bioplastic and structural kraftboard rolls made with a percentage of food waste. The project uses local materials and trades with neigbouring projects e.g., residual chalk is used for thermal walls. The orange trees grow on rammed chalk walls as south-facing espaliers, which ensures maximum sun exposure. The rammed chalk walls contain pipes which carry heated water from an underground geothermal providing additional heat to the orange tree branches. In adverse weather conditions, an array of inflatable greenhouses is deployed across the orchard. These greenhouses use residual hot air from drying towers, where food waste is dried prior to processing it into recycled paper and building material.