Sustainable Buxton

Please find below information about initiatives and businesses helping to ensure Buxton is an environmentally-friendly town.

For help planning an eco-friendly visit to Buxton, see our themed trip here.

Reduce

Single-Use Plastics

Buxton has achieved the Surfers Against Sewerage ‘Plastic-Free Community‘ accreditation thanks to Transition Buxton’s Plastics Group.

A number of businesses and organisations in the town have pledged to reduce/remove their use of single-use plastics including: Beer & Bean Buxton Civic Association, Buxton Festival Fringe, Buxton International Festival, Buxton & Leek College/University of Derby, Buxton Methodist Church, Buxton Pudding Emporium, Day Zero, Funny Wonders, The Green Man Gallery, The Herb Garden, Pavilion Gardens, Pig and Pepper Bakery, Potters of Buxton, Seasons Buxton, Serpentine Community Garden, The Servants’ Quarters and Wheeldon Trees Cottages.

See them all here.

Day Zero

Day Zero is a zero waste food shop on the High Street which sells a range of dry foodstuffs, accessories and cleaning products. Bring your own containers and reduce the amount of packaging produced and reused.

Library of Things

Transition Buxton has set up a community ‘library of things’ at Buxton Library with items which can be hired/borrowed so that you do not need to buy and store your own item. Launched in January 2024, items are available to collect/return on Monday evenings and Saturday mornings. View the catalogue here.

Reuse

The Buxton Cup

If you’re coming to Buxton to enjoy one of our food and drink festivals, music festivals, carnival or other community days, please consider purchasing a reusable ‘Buxton Cup’ to use all day, rather than taking a new single-use plastic cup each time you have a new drink. They can be purchased year-round at The Pump Room.

Clothing

Buxton has a number of charity shops to buy previously owned items – click the link to see a listing. They regularly take donations of reusable and resalable items – don’t just throw them out!

Reusable Mugs

Most cafes accept reusable mugs and cups.

Purchase them at the following shops: Day Zero, Buxton Pudding Emporium, Rymans, WH Smith, Pavilion Gardens, Mountain Warehouse, Craghoppers, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Water Bottles

Most cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants will happily refill your water bottle. Just ask!

And don’t forget, you can refill your bottle with Buxton Water for free at St Ann’s Well.

Repair & Repurpose

Repair Café

Have something that needs repairing? Transition Buxton runs a Repair Café at the Buxton Methodist Church on the Market Place on the fourth Saturday of the month. It’s free but donations are welcome.

Art Resources

Buxton has a very active community arts scene with lots of local artists who use a range of media. The following groups would welcome these items:

Funny Wonders – flowerpots, plastic piping/tubing

Recycle

In addition to local authority recycling of plastics, metals, papers, glass and food waste, Transition Buxton manage a Hard-to-Recycle scheme. This takes a range of items at a number of locations around the town. Bins are located a Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Iceland and Buxton Methodist Church.

See more information about recycling in Buxton on the Transition Buxton website here.

Food Packaging Items

The following can be recycled in Transition Buxton’s Hard-to-Recycle item bins.

Baby Food – pouches/caps/packets
Snacks – sweet and savoury biscuits, cereal bars, crackers, wafers, rice cakes, crispbreads and their multipack bags and all parts of Pringles packaging
Cheese – flexible plastic cheese pouches/wrappers (please wash!)
Coffee – Tassimo & L’Or pods & Kenco pouches (Green Man Gallery only)

Other Items

The following can also be recycled in Transition Buxton’s Hard-to-Recycle item bins:

Cleaning products – flexible packaging only – wipes, dishwasher cleaner, refills

Other items include:

Medicine Blister Packs – these are taken at Superdrug in the Spring Shopping Centre, SK17 6DF
Batteries – any shop selling batteries, Buxton Town Hall, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose
Clothes & Shoes – Morrisons
Toothpaste Tubes – can be recycled at Boots

Other Plastic Bags & Packaging

The following are all taken at Morrisons and Waitrose:

Carrier bags – including thin bags used for fruit and veg at supermarkets
Wrapping – toilet roll and kitchen towel packs, magazine and newspaper wrap (type used for home delivery)
Drinks packaging – wrappers from plastic bottles, flexible ring joiners from can multi-packs (please cut)
Food bags – bread, bagels, boxed cereal, crisps, confectionery, popcorn, nuts & pretzels packets, crisp substitutes e.g. lentil curls, tortillas, quavers, prawn crackers. Multi-pack bags of above.
Freezer/frozen goods bags
Packaging – bubble wrap, postal bags, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) – resin ID code 4

Venue Overviews

Boots – toothpaste tubes
Buxton Methodist Church – cheese wrappers, cleaning products – Chapel Street, SK17 6AW
Buxton Town Hall – batteries – Market Place, SK17 6EL
Iceland – batteries, cheese wrappers, cleaning products – 88 Spring Gardens, SK17 6BZ
Morrisons – batteries, clothes, shoes, plastic bags, food packaging, cheese, cleaning products – Bakewell Road, SK17 9TB
Sainsbury’s – batteries, cheese wrappers, cleaning products – 14 Eagle Parade, SK17 6EQ
Superdrug – medicine blister packs – Spring Shopping Centre, SK17 6DF
Waitrose – batteries, plastic bags – Spring Shopping Centre, SK17 6DF

Waterswallows Household Waste Recycling Centre

Accepts: electrical appliances, furniture, wood-based products, glass, plastic, garden waste, textiles, tyres, batteries, bulbs, gas bottles, household chemicals, paint, oils, mattresses. See more information on the Derbyshire County Council website here. Vehicles must be registered.

Waterswallows, Fairfield, SK17 7JR.

Replant

Community Orchard

Transition Buxton has a dispersed community orchard throughout the town with fruit trees planted for community use. They offer to plant a tree on your behalf. A lovely present idea!

Home for Nature

Buxton Civic Association manages many of the woodlands in and around Buxton. They plant trees and provide a home for nature as part of their woodland management and biodiversity work. Support their work – find out how to become a BCA member here.

Transport

See information about travelling to and from Buxton, including by train and bus, here.

Electric Vehicle Charging

There are public electric car charging points at:

Morrisons – Bakewell Road, SK17 9TB
Sylvan Car Park – end of Spring Gardens, SK17 6BY
Top Shops – Victoria Park Road, SK17 7PE

Those on private property with use subject to the discretion of the owners:

Burbage View – 17 Carr Road, SK17 6WF
Cavendish Hospital – Manchester Road, SK17 6TE
Foxlow Grange – Harpur Hill, SK17 9LU
The Lanterns – 19 Marlborough Road, SK17 6RD
Lee Wood Hotel – The Park, SK17 6TQ
The Old Manse Guesthouse – 6 Clifton Road, Silverlands, SK17 6QL
Wheeldon Trees Cottages – Earl Sterndale, SK17 0AA

Subject to availability. See other charging points in the area on the High Peak Borough Council website here.

Cycling

Buxton Town Team is working to develop cycle routes through the town to encourage safe and environmentally-friendly travel. These will be put into place soon.

Car Hire

Enterprise Car Club is available from Buxton Railway Station, Station Road, SK17 6AQ. One car and one small van is available for hire by the hour or the day.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is available from Buxton Car Centre, Tongue Lane Industrial Estate, off the A6 Fairfield Road, SK17 7LF. Skyline 199 buses run to the nearby bus stop in Boarstones Lane from the railway station and market place.

Car Share

If you need the flexibility of car travel but want to reduce your environmental impact, check out Derbyshire Car Share scheme to see if you can share the journey.

Support Local

Support local producers at Buxton Markets (Tuesdays & Saturdays on the market place) and monthly farmers’ markets in the Pavilion Gardens. There are also a number of local butchers and farm shops – click here.

Also, see our Local & Peakland food and drink page to find out about other lesser-travelled fare.

Buy produce from the Serpentine Community Garden – a community allotment and orchard – and buy local produce including vegetables and herbs grown onsite.

Environmental Quality Mark

The Peak District National Park Authority runs this scheme to acknowledge businesses with good working practices and a low environmental impact. It is awarded to organisations which support the local economy, protect the global environment, enhance the local environment and invest in people and communities.

Those awarded the EQM in Buxton include managed outdoor spaces Poole’s Cavern and Buxton Country Park – both SSSIs and run by Buxton Civic Association, Discover Buxton Tours, Wheeldon Trees Cottages (located just outside of Buxton, sleeps up to twenty-nine), the Servant’s Quarters (self-catering apartment in the centre of Buxton, sleeps four), Foxlow Grange (self-catering apartments in Harpur Hill) and Coconut Blush, who produce natural soaps and skincare products (available at the Natural Health Practice and Everything’s Rosy Interiors).

Other Businesses

Buxton is also home to other environmentally-friendly businesses including Buxton Press, which has won the Environmental Company of the Year Award, and Nestlé Waters UK whose Buxton Water Bottling Plant at Waterswallows has a zero-to-landfill waste policy and is powered by renewable energy. Their plastic bottles are now made of 100% recycled plastic. Read more about Buxton Water’s sustainability here.