Why Henry Miles of Overland thinks growers should stop throwing away their coir
When Jennifer Neujahr and Ted Buis visited Overland in Kent, UK in October, they expected to spend most of their time looking at a steam-treatment installation. Next Step Solutions is working with Konflex to explore commercial markets for its technology. But what stayed with them was the business Henry Miles and his team had built around the equipment.
Overland takes a problem many growers would rather not deal with, used coir grow bags at the end of a crop, and tries to turn it into a supply of growing media that can be used again. The difficult part is not simply collecting bags. It is separating plastic and crop residues, processing the coir, checking its suitability and finding a buyer for the recovered product.
A business built around the grower
Overland began providing mechanised crop-removal services in 2010. Work in greenhouse
vegetables eventually led to soft fruit and the large volumes of coir bags left behind after strawberry and raspberry production. Rather than treating those bags solely as waste, the business began investing in material recovery.
Henry puts the proposition simply: “We’re here to supply you a good quality, good value material and just take care of that headache for you.” Growers are good at growing crops. They do not necessarily want to invest in a separate recycling operation, manage its equipment or market the output.
The real test is another crop
Overland has worked with NIAB and commercial growers to study recycled coir. Strawberry trials have reported comparable yields to virgin coir in the systems tested, with water savings in some trials. But reused material can have different water-holding capacity and air-filled porosity. Successful reuse requires management based on the material’s actual characteristics, not the assumption that it behaves like fresh coir.
The visitors also saw raspberry plants growing in reused media. The root development was encouraging, although a site observation cannot replace controlled comparative trials. Henry knows that commercial adoption depends on more than a promising demonstration. “You want to build confidence,” he said.
Where steaming fits
Overland uses a containerised superheated-steam treatment installation supplied by Konflex. Superheated steam is used to pasteurise recovered media and reduce biological risks associated with previous crops. The process is not complete sterilisation; treatment conditions and outcomes need validation for the particular feedstock and intended use.
The installation matters because recovery alone does not make a finished horticultural product. Collection, separation, sanitation, quality control and a route back to the customer must all work together.
Could it work elsewhere?
After the visit, Jennifer and Ted from Next Step Solutions continued discussing the operation. They see demand for more local substrate options, but also recognise the commercial obstacles. Ted emphasized that a viable facility needs enough material in a practical collection area and customers for its output. Some regions may need a partnership between growers, processors and substrate manufacturers.
Henry is open to different models. “We’d like to be part of something than part of nothing,” he said while discussing partnerships and possible franchise-type arrangements. He described Overland as a young, ambitious team operating in a part of horticulture that is not yet crowded with competitors.
The lesson from Kent is not that every grower should recycle their own bags. It is that someone has to make the entire chain work from a crop coming out to another crop going in. Overland is showing what that can look like.
For more information:
Next Steps
Jennifer@nxtstps.com
Ted@nxtstps.com
www.nxtstps.com
