By Rosie
My name is Rosie, and I am 9 years old. I live in Surrey and go to school in Hampshire. I am a member of our school eco club and am passionate about making changes to help save our planet and animal habitats, but also to keep our local area clean and green. I wanted to do something to help and had heard that drinks cans are often put into landfill as they are not cleaned or put in the wrong bin. So I decided to collect cans to be recycled. I was told that I could be paid for the cans, so I thought I could raise money for charity as well as recycling. The charity I chose was Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice Care. I had heard how amazingly caring they are to people who are ill, and how much they support the families as well. They are based near to my home, and I wanted to support a local charity. They also seem really nice and friendly.
Lots of people from the area, Ash, Ash Vale, Tongham, Aldershot etc donated their cans . We had three collection bins, one at my house in Ash and one at the home of a lovely lady who offered to help in Ash Vale, called Claire, who was brilliant. The other was at a local café called Chappies, with the help of Jackie who owns the café. (Her waffles are amazing). Some of the local community even donated bins, which we really needed!
We collected the cans and took them to Shaun and all the staff at Bakers, a metal recycling company, in Farnham. They have been raising money for Phyllis Tuckwell for 20 years by recycling metals that have been donated to them for Phyllis Tuckwell. Shaun paid me for the cans and then he sent them off to be recycled. This way each can is certain to be recycled and not left in landfill. Many of our cans would be remade into new cans and back in the shops, some as quickly as six weeks! We started collecting in October 2021. We finished collecting in May 2022 and have raised £157.00, which means we recycled roughly 300kg, that is approximately 16700 cans!! That is a lot of cans not in the wrong bins and not in landfill. So, we raised money for a good cause, to help people, and we made a little difference to the environment.
Thank you to everyone who helped and supported my challenge. I even got my Eco Blue Peter badge! I had wanted to raise £50.00, but we did so much more. People are fantastic!
This did not take much effort, but a little effort of a lot of people from my community. If everyone made a little effort, just think what we could do!
