A lucky shopper in the Camborne, Pool and Redruth area will be sharing his winnings with his wife after success in the first round of a free to enter recycling competition.
Cornwall Council’s waste awareness team is giving away hundreds of pounds of shopping vouchers over the next two months as part of an intensive campaign to increase recycling rates in the area.
The winning Big Green Tickets were picked out at random from bags of household and business recycling taken to the Materials Recycling Facility at Pool.
Every week residents and local workers who fill in a competition form and leave it with their recycling can win weekly prizes of £100 of shopping vouchers as first prize, or £50 as second prize.
There have been six lucky winners so far, including the delighted Kevin Wild of Redruth who scooped one of the £100 prizes.
Mr Wild said: “We’ve always recycled at home so it was a nice surprise to get a reward for doing it.
“I only popped into the Redruth One Stop Shop to pick up a replacement recycling bag after mine wore out and got asked if I wanted to enter a recycling competition.
“It’s my wife that organises the recycling at home, so I’m going to have to share the vouchers with her.”
Julian German, Cornwall Council cabinet member for Environment and Waste Management, said: “It’s great to see the campaign swing into action and to see people in the area reaping the benefits. A lot of people are already doing a fantastic job with recycling but we need as many people as possible to recycle everything they can.
“The benefits of recycling are clear – the less waste that has to be taken to landfill, the lower the cost to the council taxpayer.”
During the three-month campaign officers from the council’s waste awareness team are visiting every school and supermarket in the area and dozens of local businesses to distribute tickets and see what they can do to raise levels of recycling.
Explaining the scheme, Esther O’Bearagh, waste projects and education officer, said: “It’s a bit like a huge raffle – the council is giving out green tickets which come in two parts, both with the same unique number. We keep the bottom part with the contact details and the householder takes the top half home. When they next use the kerbside collection service, mini recycling banks or the local recycling banks they put the Big Green Ticket in with the paper.”
“All of the paper goes to the Materials Recycling facility at Pool to be sorted before it is sent off to be recycled and two tickets will be drawn randomly every week. We really hope that this competition will encourage more people to recycle more of their waste.”
There are several ways to get a Big Green Ticket. If you are not already recycling call the Refuse and Recycling line on 0300 1234 141 and they will send you your blue box and bag along with collection information. There will be tickets at the Redruth and Camborne One Stop Shops as well as the Redruth and Camborne Libraries and the waste awareness team will be at venues all over the area in November and December. To view the full list and full terms and conditions go to www.cornwall.gov.uk/campaigns.
