Lucky residents have won their share of £1,000 after entering a North Tyneside Council competition.
High street vouchers worth £250 each have been handed over to the four winners.
They scooped the prize after joining in with the council’s popular waste campaign Changing Our Thinking, which provides rewards and incentives to encourage people to be greener when throwing rubbish away.
Either by signing up online or at a community roadshow, residents were asked to make a pledge to wash, squash and recycle their recyclable items at home, and schools were invited to take part too.
By making the promise, residents were also in with a chance of winning a monthly prize of £100 and entered into the grand annual prize of £1,000, simply by guessing how many recyclable items were in a 240-litre wheelie bin.
And after four residents correctly guessed there were 187 recyclable materials in the bin, the £1,000 prize was spilt between them and they’re all planning on putting them towards Christmas.
Cllr John Stirling, cabinet member for Environment, handed over the vouchers and certificates to the winners. He said: “It was a pleasure to meet with the winners and I’m pleased the vouchers will come in handy for Christmas. It was also great to hear about how helpful they found the campaign.
“Since we launched it three years ago, the fun roadshows have proved to be a huge hit with the public and I am delighted that we have engaged with over 6,000 residents and 10,000 school children.
“The campaign has been a great way for the council to increase recycling rates and divert recyclable materials away from landfill and its success was recently recognised at the Public Sector Sustainability Awards.
“I am therefore pleased to announce that we’ll be running it for a fourth consecutive year and there will be lots of chances for the public to win £100 a month again and schools to win £100 towards an environmental project of their choice.”
The four £250 voucher winners include Yvonne Mason, Mark Beckham, Angela Husthwaite and Rosie Halliday.
Speaking about the win, Yvonne said: “I feel over the moon, I am going to spend the £250 on Christmas presents for my daughter, they’ll be a big help.”
Mark added: “I entered during a roadshow in the playground at Appletree Gardens First School, I never win anything but I thought I’d give the competition a go. The vouchers couldn’t have come at a better time; I’ll be using them to buy toys for Christmas for my children.”
Rosie Halliday was also pleased, she said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been one of the winners of the competition, it’s unbelievable that I managed to guess the correct amount of items in the recycling bin, just proves that almost everything can be recycled and everyone should do so for the benefit of the environment. The prize has come just in time for Christmas and I plan to spend it on my two children”.
Angela Husthwaite added: “It feels fabulous to win! I’ll be spending it on Christmas shopping, presents and a mattress topper for my bed.”
Information about the roadshow and details of the campaign are available at www.northtyneside.gov.uk.