Date: 21/02/2008
Environment-friendly youngsters from Sett Valley Watch have been enjoying 'chips' with everything, in a bid to raise funds towards the cost of their wildlife related activities.
For, the enterprising eight- to 14-year-olds joined forces with High Peak Borough Council to recycle and bag Christmas tree chippings so that 'green' minded gardeners can use them for mulching borders and resurfacing paths, in return for a small donation.
Staff from the Council's Waste and Recycling and Parks and Environment departments arranged for thousands of trees collected across the Borough to be chipped, then transported to Hayfield Recycling Centre, Sett Valley car park.
Sett Valley Watch members then stepped in to bag them up for collection - raising about £50 for everything from pond dipping to photographic walks.
"It's a great help to us, as the money raised will be spent on our varied programme of regular activities throughout the year," said Sett Valley Watch leader Richard Body.
"Sett Valley Watch is one of a national network of Wildlife Watch, the junior branch of the Wildlife Trust, and aims to help young people enjoy and understand the natural world around them through such forthcoming events as water-based activities at The Torrs in New Mills and a dawn chorus walk on the Sett Valley Trail."
Any left-over chippings will be combined with 'green' waste and shredded cardboard collected from green-lidded bins in the High Peak to create a compost that will be processed and used by a Doncaster farmer to enrich his land, instead of going to landfill sites.
"We are delighted to work in partnership with both Sett Valley Watch and an enlightened South Yorkshire farmer to recycle and re-use chippings from Christmas trees in the Borough, instead of sending them to landfill," said Councillor John Haken, High Peak Borough Council's Executive Member for the Environment. "Last year, we recycled more than 7,000 trees and this year have chipped a similar number, so I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported this important initiative to reduce the impact of waste on the environment."
Photo: From left, Sett Valley Watch members Holly Swainson, Helen Thornhill, Emily Body and Caithy Heath bag up Christmas tree chippings to help raise funds to support the environmental group's activities throughout the year.