Last week we judged our Styrofoam Tray Recycling Competition. Linda Norris was joined by The Press Education and Sponsorship Marketing Manager Robert Richardson to choose the winners. Many thanks also to the prize supports – Was for their Recycled Billboard bags (which we love), ECOtanka for the 100% recyclable stainless steel drink bottles and Sulo Talbot for their mini wheelie bin desk tidies.
The entries varied from garden mulching to insulation to flotation to not using them/banning their use. After a couple of hours of thorough reading of all the great entries we came up with a few favourites. It look a bit of discussion to choose the winners – we felt the two that won had new and interesting ideas that met the brief and had added a little bit of something else to make them stand out.
The winner of the most sustainable/commercial category is Paul Ryan from Lincoln, Canterbury. He had an idea of turning the trays into building insulation by steralising then glueing and moulding them together. There were quite a few entries for insulation (a topic on few people’s minds at the moment) but Paul’s stood out with his idea to utilise UV treatment to steralise the trays.
The winner of the most artistic/creative category is Jo Wynne, from Christchurch. Jo had three really great entries but we were quite impressed with her idea to turn the trays into different sized portable screens that could be used for office partitions and other screening.
Many thanks to all those who entered and thank you to The Press for all of their support – without them we wouldn’t have had as much reach in our message. Also, many thanks to Was for their Was Recycled Billboard bags, ECOtanka for their Sports drink bottles and Sulo Talbot for the mini wheelie bin desk tidies. This was a successful competition in that it helped to highlight the massive plastics and styrofoam waste problem we have in Canterbury – millions of the trays go to landfill each year where they sit for hundreds of years not breaking down. We think the best idea is to not use them all if you can. Buy from your local butcher for meat (wrapped in paper) and from your farmer’s market or fruit and vege shop for your veges. If, like many, your are super busy and the easiest way is to go to your local supermarket talk to them about putting the meat into another form of tray that can be recycled or will break down.
Photos to come.
