Press Release

Dec 2004 - Choose2Reuse brings Christmas to a home in Cambridge

Great recycling ideas have solved the problem of Christmas decorating for one Cambridge household this year.

Chesterton resident Mrs Valerie Cresswell is the proud owner of a new artificial Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations worth £85 after she won a competition to come up with three top tips for recycling at Christmas.

The competition, run by Cambridgeshire Community Reuse and Recycling Network (CCORRN) in the Cambridge Evening News, asked people to list three ways they would 'Choose2Reuse' this Christmas.

Mrs Cresswell's winning ideas were:
1. Taking a used bag when Christmas shopping
2. Make old Christmas cards into gift tags
3. Reuse last years wrapping paper

The top prizes of a tree and decorations were donated by B&Q in Cambridge.

Over 150 entries were received and among the great recycling ideas was this one for a festive room freshener:

To reuse the contents of mulled wine take the tangerines, cloves and cinnamon stick from the Mulled Wine mix, put them on a tray and bake them in the oven until the liquid has evaporated. Place the baked items in a net bag (the kind you buy oranges in is good for this) and hang from the chimney breast. As the chimney heats up the Christmas aroma of spice and oranges acts as a pleasant room freshener'.

Evening News readers were also able to contact CCORRN for a free cotton bag courtesy of Cambridgeshire County Council and some reusable envelope labels. More than 50 cotton bags were posted out along with several hundred reusable envelope labels.

Kay Barnes, Network Organiser for CCORRN, said: "During Christmas, the consumption of goods grows more than any other time of the year, there is a vast range of items that can be reused or donated to organisations that will use it to satisfy a need. The response to the competition has been great and we would urge people to make the resolution to re-cycle more during 2005."

Notes for Editors

For more information about Recycling in Cambridgeshire, contact Victor Perez, Waste Campaigns Officer on 01223 717572 or visit www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

For more information about CCORRN activities contact Nikki DiGiovanni, Network Organiser for CCORRN on 01354 742300, or visit www.ccorrn.org.uk or www.choose2reuse.org.uk.

Cambridgeshire Community Reuse and Recycling Network (CCORRN) is a community-led Network (unincorporated not for profit association) that supports the development of community reuse and recycling schemes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

CCORRN is a partnership between the community, public and private sector that started in early 2003 with financial support obtained by Cambridgeshire County Council from the DEFRA Recycling Challenge Fund and from Enventure, an environmental body that administers Landfill Tax Credits for the waste operator - Donarbon Ltd of Waterbeach. The project was initially co-ordinated by Anglia Polytechnic University's WasteWISE Champion.