Hooky schoolgirl leads the way in Christmas recycling

Darcey Davis-Batchelor from Hook Norton and Josie Briant from Bicester will have their festive recycling collected by lorries which now bear their own artwork.

They are the winners of a Cherwell District Council competition which challenged pupils aged nine to 11 to create illustrations showing what they can recycle in the blue bin.

Darcey and Josie’s designs stood out amongst entries submitted by children from six primary schools. Their work has now been enlarged and printed onto two of the council’s recycling lorries and will be seen on the highways and byways of north Oxfordshire.

Darcey, who goes to Hook Norton primary school, said: "I felt really shocked, I didn't know that it would be me. When I saw my poster on the side of the lorry I was amazed. I wasn't really thinking about how proud I felt, I couldn't believe it was me!"

Josie, a pupil at Longfields Primary School, said: “I was really, really shocked I had won!”

Cherwell recycling officers visited the two schools last week to show the newly decorated vehicles to the winners and their classmates.

Cherwell’s waste resource manager Ian Upstone said: “Congratulations to Darcey and Josie, who have really done themselves and their schools proud. Scores of creative and imaginative posters were submitted to the competition.

“Clearly the schoolchildren know a lot about recycling. I just hope this helps the message gets through to any adults who are still putting the wrong thing in the wrong bin.”

Cherwell residents currently recycle around 56 per cent of their household waste, but the volume of waste and recycling produced over the festive season spikes dramatically. For example, 300,000 tonnes of card is used by UK residents over Christmas.

Top tips for festive recycling include:

- remove ribbons and tassels from greetings cards before recycling

- scrunch it and see: plastic wrapping film will unfold again when scrunched into a ball and can’t be recycled. Paper that stays scrunched up in a ball is safe to put in the recycling

- avoid purchasing gifts with excess packaging and packaging that can’t be recycled, such as polystyrene inserts and plastic film

- wrap gifts with ribbon or string instead of sticky tape. The latter can make wrapping paper unfit for recycling

For more festive recycling tips, visit: www.recyclenow.com.