Suffolk Waste Partnership and hundreds of children across the county have come up with an imaginative way of cutting down on waste this Christmas.
Hundreds of Suffolk youngsters have let their imaginations take festive flight in a county-wide Christmas environmental project.
They have created almost 2,000 “Beautiful Birds of Peace” from waste materials in the county’s annual Christmas recycling project organised by the Suffolk Waste Partnership. Their imaginative creations will adorn two of Suffolk’s most popular venues ovder the Christmas period.
A total of 31 schools, Guides and Brownies from Ipswich and the county town’s Gainsborough Library have taken part in the initiative which follows the partnership’s similarly festive 1,000 Suffolk Stars and 1,000 Brilliant Baubles projects in 2015 and 2016.
Beautiful Birds of Peace organiser Caroline Fish, waste service development officer at partnership member Suffolk County Council, praised the efforts of the youngsters taking part this year.
“Some of the creations are exquisite,” she said. “They’re made mostly of carboard and waste paper but there’s a variety of other materials, such as coat hangers and plastic milk bottles and the creativity the children have shown is brilliant - they must have spent hours making them.
“They were provided with templates but many have let their imaginations run wild and designed their own birds. With these projects we try to raise awarenes of re-use and celebrate recycling - it’s all part of the sustainable living message.
“Beautiful Birds of Peace seemed a particularly suitable theme for Christmas - it’s about world peace, being good to our planet and being good to each other. It comes at a time of year when perhaps we may be a little more wasteful, so it helps to make people think about recycling.
“It’s also like recycling in a way because, with recycling, if we all do our little bit we can make a real difference and if all the children involved made one bird we end up with a big flock - and we’ve got about 1,700.”
Suffolk Waste Partnership chairman David Bowman said: “We are delighted with the response from these young people. Suffolk’s 50% recycling rate is something we are very proud of and the creativity and imagination of the children to make these wonderful birds from everyday recycled materials is testament to the dedication of the young people and their teachers and leaders.”
Matthew Hicks, county council cabinet member for environment and public protection, is the partnership’s vice-chairman. He added: “We need to work with schools and our young people and help them to develop good habits of reducing, re-using and recycling. We know that the popularity of these projects encourages them to think about rubbish and recycling as a resource, rather than something that goes to waste.”
The childrens’ Beautiful Birds of Peace creations will be displayed at The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, and Ipswich Town Hall throughout the Christmas period.
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