Residents box clever on recycling

Royal Borough residents have been thinking 'outside the box' and coming up with innovative ways of reusing their old black and purple recycling boxes.

A Royal Borough challenge to residents followed last year's successful rollout of the Recyclebank scheme in which the majority of residents now use blue bins for their recycling.

With Recyclebank points up for grabs the response was positive - and entries included both enterprising and wacky suggestions for reusing the boxes.

The winner of the first prize of 500 Recyclebank points is Mrs Mary Parsons, who uses the boxes as seats for her homemade model flowerpot couple. The judges were impressed by the fact that Mrs Parsons not only reuses the recycling boxes but has also reused her garden plant pots to make the models.

In second place with 350 points is the suggestion from Karen Meade to use the boxes as a 'place for my daughter's hamster to roam around in when I clean her out - it is chew-proof and high enough so she doesn't jump out'.

Third place - and 150 points - goes to Mr John Martin who has converted the boxes into 'homes for hedgehogs'.

Cllr Phill Bicknell, Cabinet Member for Public Protection, said: "I would like to thank all the residents for coming up with some great suggestions. It was not easy for the judges to pick a winner and runner-up. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to enter."

"The competition was a fun way to pass on a serious recycling message - we all need to do our bit and find ways to reuse everyday items and recycle as much as possible."

Unwanted black and purple boxes can be handed in at the Stafferton Way civic amenity site in Maidenhead.

How do you rate this information/service?